All or Nothing
by DanDanger1
Summary: Brittany always saw the best in people. A Brittana story that follows Brittany and Santana (and their supporting characters, as it should be) through the trials and tribulations of life and love at McKinley High and beyond.
1. Now or Never

The bell rang, and after she collected her things, Brittany looked pointedly at Santana, the hurt showing in her eyes and every crease of her face. Then she stormed out of the choir room.

_If only that stupid dwarf hadn't opened her stupid mouth_, t_hen I wouldn't have snapped and we could have had this moment be just for us for a little bit longer_, Santana thought to herself, as he slowly walked to her car. Immediately after it happened, she saw the hurt in Brittany's eyes, and the the surprise registering on Ms. Holliday's face – after all, why do _that_ song, and admit openly to her that _that_ was how she felt, if immediately after Berry made another asinine comment she'd say something to take fully two steps backward – and then all she saw was Brittany storming out of the classroom. And she wasn't at her locker. Or in the cheerios locker room. She had left school and gone home. They hadn't left school without each other, or at least not without first saying goodbye to each other, since a month into Freshman year. She had fucked up, badly, and she knew it. And she knew she had to do something to fix it, if for no other reason than she hated to see Brittany in pain, or cry – and she knew she was probably at home crying now – and the fact that she knew she had caused it made it that much worse.

When she got home, she noticed the house was quiet. This wasn't unusual, as her parents were often at work, and they usually worked the same shift at hospital so that they could only have to use one car – their little attempt, they said, to save the planet – and her older brothers had since moved out of the house and her younger brother usually went over to a friends' house after after-school club, so Santana was often home alone, which suited her fine. And whilst she knew, deep down in her heart she didn't want to be alone right now, it wasn't her parents' company she sought. She saw a note in her mothers' hand scrawled on a piece of paper left on the kitchen table for her:

"_Mija, your dad and I are working a double shift tonight, so we probably won't be home until you're getting ready to head to school tomorrow. I made you some lentejos con arroz for your dinner. Its in the fridge, all you have to do is put it in the microwave. You know the rules: no drinking, no parties, no boys past 10.30. And do your homework. Te Amo, Mami." _

Santana slowly made her way upstairs to her bedroom. She threw her book bag down in the corner, grabbed her towel and made her way to the shower to try to wipe away the pain and hurt of the day, even though she knew that she couldn't. When she had finished showering, she quickly changed out of her school clothes and into a comfortable tee shirt and jeans. Before she did anything else, she warmed up the lentil and rice stew in the microwave and ate. This dish was, she knew, one of her absolute favourites. Her mother would often make it for her when she was younger, when it was too rainy to go outside and play, or when she was sad, or when she was lonely, they would make a batch together, invite Abuela over, and spend time together watching horrible telenovelas. It was, to Santana, a comfort food, in every sense of the word. To her, it tasted like warmth, and family, and acceptance, and Abuela, and love. Everything that she knew she was about to put on the line, everything she stood to lose if things didn't go right. She wept into her stew for several minutes before she was able to compose herself.

After she had finished and washed her dish, she picked up her phone and dialled Brittany's number. It was immediately rejected. She waited a few minutes and tried again, and was blessed with a few buzzes of a dial tone before her call was rejected. She sat down at the kitchen table, staring at her phone, dejected, when she saw a notification for an incoming text message. She immediately opened it.

**I am so mad at you right now. **

It was like a punch in the stomach. She of course knew that Brittany was hurting, but to see visual confirmation of it like that – and a text that was so serious, without any emoticons or smiley faces which was a rarity with Brittany – it physically hurt.

**Can u come over pls? Home alone and we need 2 talk. **

**Why so u can just say more hurtful things?**

When Santana saw that text, she almost wished she was dead. If there was one thing she never wanted to do, it was hurt Brittany. And now that she had, she knew that firstly, she had to make it right, and secondly, she would do everything she could to never hurt her again.

**No I feel horrible about that. I need to apologise. **

**Is that y u called me? To apologise over the phone? Am I not even worth an apology in person Santana? :'( **

**No of course you do! I'm sorry. I was calling to ask you to come over. Pls? We really need 2 talk about some things. **Santana replies. She immediately sends a follow up text that says simply, **please? **

**Fine. I'll be over in 10. **

When Brittany arrived 10 minutes later, Santana was a nervous wreck. But when she heard Brittany knock on her door three times in quick succession, she knew what she had to do. _This is it, Lopez. Its game time, now or never_, she told herself as she went to open the door.

As she opened the door for the other girl, both standing on opposite sides of the threshold of the house, they shared a quiet 'hello' and each noticed the other had been crying – and trying to hide that fact from the other. Santana quickly led Brittany up to her room, the spot in her house they most often used for their sweet lady kisses. When Brittany was sitting on the bed, she looked at Santana who was standing in front of her, expectantly. Quickly, she reached over to her bed and removed a red carnation, and gave it to Brittany.

'This is for you,' she said. 'I know you like them.'

'They're my favourite,' Brittany said. 'But Santana, you know giving me a flower from your mom's garden isn't going to fix this...'

'I know, I know,' Santana said, running her fingers through her hair in slight frustration. 'But I want you to have it anyway. Let's call it a peace offering? Please, I just, I have a lot I need to tell you'

Brittany smiled briefly as she smelt the flower, and then looked at Santana with anticipation, as if to say 'well, get on with it then'. Santana continued,

'I'm sorry the way I reacted to the dwarf...' she began, but Brittany cut her off

'Santana...'

'Please, Britt, just let me say what I have to say. I have a lot to say and I know if I don't say it now, I probably never will so please, just be quiet and listen, kay?' Brittany's eyes began to have a wetness to them that wasn't there a few moments before, as she looked at Santana expectantly.

'Like I said, I'm sorry for the way I reacted to the dwarf. I shouldn't have done it that way. But I think, I think that performing _that_ song in front of the entire glee club was a mistake. I think it would have been much better, for us, if we had just done it with us, and Ms. Holliday and maybe Mr. Shue.' she paused for breath before continuing,

'Look, this whole thing is so complicated, and for so long I was so angry, and so hurt, and so confused because I didn't know how I felt, and then angry because how I felt wasn't how I was supposed to feel, so I tried to pretend that I didn't feel this way, so I lashed out at people, with my words, and even worse, towards you, with my body. I slept around, a lot, and flaunted it around in front of you, because I thought, maybe if I hurt you bad enough, you'd stop wanting me, and then I could pretend that I didn't want you either; that you weren't the only one I've ever really wanted,' she paused to let out a soft sob and wipe the tears streaming out of her eyes.

'I'm not exactly a virgin, either, Santana...' Brittany said, softly, hoping to reassure this girl that she loved that it was okay.

'No, but you never used sex as a weapon, Britt. I did. I slept with guys like Puck and Finn and Sam and all of them just to make you angry, I...'

'Maybe not, but I did sleep around and date guys to make you jealous, and that's just as bad,' Brittany said, cutting her off, tears welling up in her own eyes.

Santana sniffled, and did her best to get back on track. 'Look, the point is I did these horrible things to you, and to others, because I wasn't honest. When we sang that song today in front of anyone, I wasn't singing it for glee club, or Mr Shue or Ms Holliday...I was only singing it to you. And you asked me today if that was really how I felt, and I said yes, and it was the truth. I shouldn't have reacted that way when Berry said something stupid, because that is something that is going to happen all the time –' she and Brittany shared a chuckle at this '– but its just, things are really complicated, Britt. I love you and all I want is to be with you – for us to be together – but its just so complicated and...and I – I'm just not ready...' she said, breaking down into sobs at the end.

All the animosity that Brittany had had towards Santana for the pain she had caused her earlier in the day had evaporated, and as soon as Santana started to cry, she was up off of the bed, her arms immediately opened to hold the crying girl that she loved. She stood like that for a while, simply holding Santana as she cried, slowly caressing her back and her arms, brushing her hair through with her fingers, and making supportive cooing sounds as she cried. Eventually, Santana curled into her even more, and they had no choice but to sit together on the bed, Brittany holding Santana as she cried, mumbling into her shirt and neck, even though all she could make out was 'so sorry' 'love you' and 'hate me'.

'What? Baby, oh honey, no of course not, I could never hate you,' she said as she caressed Santana's back softly, brushing wisps of her hair out of her eyes and back behind her ears. She then kissed the top of her head, and the strangely erogenous zone she knew she had on her temple just above her right ear. 'Of course I don't hate you. Why would you ever think that? Because you're not ready to come out?' Santana stopped crying, and furiously wiped the tears from her face before looking at Brittany and nodded sombrely. Now it was Brittany's time to make some confessions. She took a deep breath before she began,

'I broke up with Artie today after school.'

'You did?' Santana looked at her with sad, yet hopeful, eyes. 'Why?'

'You know why, San. After that song, I knew how you felt. And I know how I feel. I love you and want to be with you and only you, and it would be cruel to both you and him to lead him on any longer. But I got to say, as much as I'm glad he's not a robot, I think if he was a robot, he would be smarter'

'Why, what do you mean?' Santana said, giggling despite herself at the cute randomness.

'When I ended it, he didn't seem to get it and he kept trying to get me to tell him why'

'What did you say?'

'I said, "Artie, I think you know why" and then left. I wanted a clean slate so we can be together. And here's the thing,' she added, almost as an afterthought, 'I may have loved Artie, I dunno,' it was so nonchalant, her dismissal of her feelings for Artie, it was at the same time both disheartening and the most brilliant, romantic thing she had ever said, 'but I am _in love_ with you, Santana.'

'Britt...' Santana began, but she was cut off.

'Please, let me finish San. I did the same for you.' Santana nodded sheepishly as Brittany began again. 'I know you aren't ready to come out to everyone. I don't know why, because I think it won't be nearly as bad as you think, and I think that you won't really be happy until you do – and we could do it together. I'd be with you the whole time you told your parents, and you'd be with me when I tell mine – but I get that you aren't ready. I won't push too much on that. As long as we have an understanding that we are a real, proper couple. I want us to be each others' girlfriends, Santana, not whatever this is that we've been doing since the end of Sophomore year,' she continued. _Not that I don't love our sweet lady kisses_, she thought, _but I think we both need and want more than just sex. After all, even before all this happened, before I started pushing for us to define what we were doing and to talk about our feelings more, she was getting more and more tender during sex than she had been at first, and I know it was more tender than she'd ever been with a guy. _'Can you tell me why you aren't ready to come out, San? Its okay if you don't want to, but I just want to know.'

Santana drew in a shuddery breath before answering.

'Its not that I'm ashamed. Don't ever think that. You're amazing, beautiful, warm, loving, super supportive, not to mention super sexy,' she began, not being able to resist smiling impishly at this girl who she loved most. She sighed, trying to collect her thoughts, and continued, 'I am in love with you, Brittany. This relationship that we have, even though yes, I know its fucked up and we were making each other jealous and all sorts of things that were complicating things – but I always knew that what we were doing was a relationship more than just hooking up even though I was afraid at first to admit it – but this relationship we have is the most precious thing I have in my life. And I want to protect it – and you – and and keep it safe. All our most special moments, all the most intimate things about each other, we've done and explored alone, just us, in private. And I'm afraid – no, I know – that if...when I come out, everything is going to change. It will become much more messy, and our business will no longer be just between you and me, even though what we do in private is nobody's business but our own, and I'm scared.'

'What do you mean, complicated?'

'We live in a small town in Ohio, Brittany!,' Santana exclaimed, slightly flustered. Brittany's only reaction was to hold Santana's hands and to begin rubbing circles over her knuckles, the way she liked it.

'We're surrounded by intolerant redneck farmers and megachurches. I mean, hell, B, I'm pretty sure the only hispanic people in this cow-town are all related to me! What do you think is going to happen? Especially when we come out at school – I mean we can basically kiss being Cheerios goodbye. Can you imagine the kind of angry phone calls Coach Sue is going to get from all the other mothers in a homophobic rage, demanding the two dykes be cut from the _all-girls_ cheerleading team? Not to mention I don't exactly look forward to being terrorised every day at school, just for loving you. I mean, you've seen how Kurt was driven out of school, and how Karofsky terrorises basically whoever the hell he wants...,' she said.

She continued, now finally hitting her stride, 'and the thing is, I'm not even so concerned for myself. I can deal with it. But I can't deal with outting you, forcing you to deal with that kind of torture. I'm used to dealing with the peasants like that, but you...you're not. You're special. You're perfect. You're nice to everyone you meet until they give you a reason not to and see everyone you meet as the best possible versions of themselves even though most of them probably don't deserve it, and I'd hate for them to treat you poorly because...' she was cut off by Brittany's lips smashing on to hers. Their kiss was deep, and passionate, and needy, as if they both were trying to explain to the other the depths of how they felt, and snatch as much comfort as they could from the other, just from a kiss. Eventually, the fervour of the kiss transitioned a more chaste, sweeter kind of kiss, and finally, they separated. When they did, it was Brittany who spoke.

'San, as much as I like it when you protect me and make me feel safe, I'm not some delicate flower,' Brittany said, sighing exasperatedly. 'And I know you know that, but it still needs to be said. Look, I know that unlike everyone else, you don't think I'm stupid or crazy, just cos my brain works different and I believe in unicorns and Santa and things that other people can't. But sometimes I think that you maybe let that fool you into thinking I'm more innocent than I am, which is silly because we've known each other since we were seven years old, San. Just because I like to hold on to some of the magic of childhood doesn't mean I'm so innocent that I'm ignorant of the world. I know that homophobia exists, and we will be exposing ourselves to it. And its a risk I'm willing to take, for you, because I think you won't truly be your best, happiest you until you can be the you I know you are – the you you are with me – with everyone, all the time. And this whole thing about not wanting to affect me is nonsense. That is something that I should decide for myself, and I've already made my decision. I'm yours, proudly so, Santana. When you're ready to come out, I will face it with you...as your girlfriend. We aren't seven years old any more and you aren't shoving Rebecca Healy into the sandbox face first because she told me unicorns weren't real and ripped up my drawing. This is something that I want – that I need – to face with you, whenever you're ready. You can't shield me from this, and I don't want to be, either. I don't care what happens, as long as we face it together'

'Britt...I love you,' Santana said, and she kissed her softly. 'But school isn't the only thing we need to worry about. I mean, our families...our parents are prominent in the community...have you given thought to how our coming out might...affect...them...?' Santana asked tentatively.

'Nobody's going to harass our parents, Santana,' Brittany said confidently. 'And if they do, we'll just go to the police. I mean, look, nobody's harassing Kurt's dad because he's gay...'

'...not that we _know of_ anyway,' Santana said.

'You aren't really worried about your parents, are you, San?'

'No'

'Are you...worried...about what your Abuela might think?'

For a few moments, all Santana could do was nod. Then, she finally found the words.

'Abuela is...a complicated woman. She's always taught me to be my own person and live by my own rules, but at the same time she is very religious and very traditional and old fashioned. She goes to mass everyday and she's always working with the community and doing Church functions. I mean, she even has Father Ramon over for dinner every Thursday. And she takes her place in the community very seriously. And she's one of the people I care about most, Britt. You know that. When I was little and my parents were still in residency, she basically raised me. She was next to God, as far as I was concerned, when I was a little girl. I don't want to lose her. I'm scared, Brittany, that she...that she...' she couldn't even finish the sentence, but Brittany knew what she wanted to say. She kissed her girlfriend softly on the top of her head as she embraced her and held her, trying to give as much comfort as she needed. After a while, Brittany spoke.

'Do want to know what I think we should do?'

'What?'

'Well, as far as I'm concerned, we're each others' girlfriends, right?'

'I want to be,' Santana agrees

'Good. I do to. So, you're my girlfriend and I'm yours.' Brittany said, in a tone that brooked no arguments. 'Now, I'm okay to keep us...quiet... _for now_ but I am not okay with keeping us a secret. I don't like secrets, Santana, not between us and not between us and other people. I don't want us to keep us a secret for too long.'

'What are you saying?'

'What I'm saying, honey, is that its okay that you aren't ready to come out yet. I won't push too hard. But I want you to realise that as hard as coming out is for you, its equally hard on me asking to keep us hidden. I want to be able to walk you to class, and kiss you openly in the halls, and hold your hand in public and all things that any other couple does, but we can't until you're ready to come out. And I'm with that, for now. All I ask is that we work on it, together. We work towards small milestones. We can go out on dates in public – we can go to Breadstix and hold hands under the table and go to the movies and sit in the back of a dark theatre where no one will notice us – that sort of thing. Eventually maybe coming out to small groups of people at a time, and swear them to secrecy until we tell them otherwise. We can start with my parents, I know they'll accept us, San. And I need to tell my parents, I need to be able to talk about you – and us – to somebody other than you sometimes, and I want to be able to talk to my mom,' she says, tears pooling in the corners of her eyes. She wipes them away furiously.

'Please understand, baby, I'm not trying to force you to come out before you're ready, but maybe working towards that goal, in baby steps, like my parents, and maybe glee club, first, will show you that its okay and will give you the confidence for us to be openly and proudly together? Because I really want us to go to prom together, as girlfriends, not as best friends. If not this one, then definitely next year' she said, finally out of steam. 'But the other important part of being quiet, but not secret, is that, if we are overseen, or found or something, by our friends...its very important to me that you don't deny it. I can't deal with more of what happened today, San. That hurt. It hurt me so much it felt like my insides were being trampled on by a herd of angry unicorns,' she said in her own, uniquely Britt way of being impossibly cute, even when describing something so awful, 'If we're discovered by our friends, we embrace it and admit it, okay?'

For at least the second or third time today, Santana felt like she was smacked across the face with a tonne of bricks. She never really thought about the emotional toll this would have on Brittany, and that both surprised and hurt her. The fact that she was hurting Brittany by being stubborn in this way and trying to put off coming out until graduation when she wouldn't be affected as much, because that was more comfortable _for her_ without even considering Brittany's feelings on the matter shocked her to her core, and she knew that she had to make it right. Frankly, she was amazed that Brittany wanted to be with her at all, with all the emotional hoops she'd been making her jump through. Yet it seemed like Brittany didn't blame her, and wasn't even angry anymore. She wasn't trying to make her feel bad, only explain her feelings, and that made her feel even worse, because it showed just how loving and tender and accepting this girl she loved really was. She swore then and there to make it right, and to do everything she could to deserve Brittany.

She rested her forehead against Brittany's cheek – as that was the closest they could get to forehead-to-forehead when they were both level with each other – and hugged her girlfriend tightly. Whilst still in the embrace, she whispered,

'I'm sorry for putting you through that'

'I'm sorry for not being more patient' Brittany replied.

'I love you'

_God its so easy to say that in private_ she thought. So simple, so easy, so natural. _Why does it have to be so hard to say it in public?_

'I love you too'.

After sitting like that for a time, just being in each others' comforting presence, Santana jumped up, energised by an idea. 'OK, that's enough of that, Pierce. Get your coat, we're going to the movies!'

Brittany looked at her hopefully.

'Does that mean...?'

'That's right, babe, I'm taking you out on a date to the movies. Now grab your coat and let's go!' she cried, grabbing Brittany's hand, running down the stairs to the main floor of the house, and out the door, barely remembering to grab her keys and lock the front door on her way out on their way to her car.

The sex that night was different. It was definitely not the same sex they had the first time, at a party in Danny Fraser's basement Sophomore year, after they had broken into his dad's liquor closet and drank an entire bottle of jagermeister between the two of them. It was also different from the increasingly frequent and gradually more tender sessions they had had up to that point. Neither of them could definitively put a finger on it, or define how, exactly, it was different, but something had physically, tangibly changed in their physical relationship. It was as if the new labels, the definitions of what they were and what they meant to each other, finally, broke down the last of the barriers and defences they had built around their hearts – most of those, Santana knew, were her own, but not all – and they were in a different world entirely. When the barriers came down, the sex was shier, more tender, almost reverent. And later that evening, as they lay awake in bed, cuddling afterwards, Brittany spoke.

'Thank you, Santana' she said quietly

'No, thank you, Britt. For everything.'

They just sat like that, in each others arms for a long time, each thinking the other had drifted off to sleep as their body weight shifted on the bed. Eventually, Brittany spoke again.

'Santana?'

'Mhmm?' Santana responded groggily.

'I'm really glad that our...uh...first time like this as, uh, you know...official girlfriends wasn't just some quickie in the back seat of my parent's Volvo or something,' Brittany said. She couldn't quite explain it more articulately than that, and even though she wished she could explain to Santana just how she felt, and just how glad she was that, now that they were official they were able to consummate their relationship in a way that made things special, and tender. And that she didn't appear to be easy, despite the labels she got at school. She was glad that Santana understood, and treated her like a lady; and that likewise Santana let her treat _her_ like a lady. She wished she was able to express that thought more articulately to Santana than she had, but the thing about being with Santana was that Brittany knew that she didn't have to. Santana knew.

'Me too, baby,' Santana said, lacing their fingers together and bringing their interlocking fingers up to her lips for a light kiss. 'Me too.' After a long, contented silence, she spoke up again.

'Santana?'

'Hmm?'

'I think...I think I want to tell my parents. I know it might be too soon for anyone else, but I know they'll accept us and...' she began to work herself up, before the Latina rolled over in bed to face her, brown eyes meeting blue.

'Baby,' Santana replied. 'If that is what you want to do, that is what we'll do. I'm not ready to tell the kids at school, or my parents yet, but if this is what you want to do, we'll do it. And besides, it will be good practice for next time, and we will swear them to secrecy for the time being anyway. When did you want to do it?'

'This weekend.'

Santana paused for only the briefest of seconds to calm her anxiously beating heart, before replying,

'Okay.'

'Thank you Santana! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!' she squealed, before she started planting hundreds of tiny little kisses all over Santana's face in gratitude, ' I love you I love you I love you I love you' she repeated over and over again in between her kisses. This, of course, led to another round of great sex where Brittany gave Santana the best orgasm she had ever had in her life, before they both fell asleep in each others' arms.


	2. Working for the Weekend

For Brittany, the weekend couldn't arrive soon enough. She's been a tightly wound bundle of nerves and positive anxiety all week, and like any natural athlete, it manifested itself in fidgety restlessness. By the end of the week she and Santana could barely have a conversation without her bouncing off the walls. However, the trade off was, Santana thought, that all her positive excitement led to a lot more covert touching and secret rendezvous in quiet, dark, janitor's cupboards around the school throughout the week. Santana and Brittany decided that they would do it on Saturday, because Friday was their date night, and on the extremely off-chance that Brittany's parents were anything less than supportive (as unlikely as that was as they were a bunch of former hippies), they didn't want to associate their date night, which was Friday night, with something sad. So, Thursday evening, whilst her mother was preparing everyone's lunches for the next day, Brittany went to speak with her mother.

_ The house was full with a dull hum of quiet activity, the kind that happens later in the evenings when families are fed and starting to settle into their evening routines. Her baby sister who would be a Freshman next year was in her room listening to the music of some new pre-teen sensation, and probably writing in her diary. Her father was engrossed , watching the news in the sunken family room, out of earshot of the kitchen, which was where Brittany had hoped to find her mother. _

_Sure enough, Allison Pierce was in the kitchen cutting up individual portions of fresh veggies and putting them into lunch bags for her children and husband's lunchees the next day. As Brittany entered the kitchen she was just finishing sealing up the last of the lunch bags and putting them in the refrigerator for the night._

_'Hi Mom,' Brittany said brightly. 'Got a minute?' _

_'For you, my sunshine, I have two,' her mother said, moving the knife and chopping board into the sink to wash them off whilst she handed Brittany a damp cloth to wipe down the table and countertops. 'What's on your mind?' _

_'Nothing much, I was just wondering...on Saturday, everyone is going to be home, right? Neither you or dad have to go in to work? Like, we'll be eating together that evening, right?' _

_'As far as I'm aware, that's it, sweetie. I don't have to work, and your dad has been working so many hours lately that I told him last night that if they even think of calling him into the office over the weekend, there'll be hell to pay, so...I do not think he'll be moving from in front of that damn television set unless he absolutely has to,' her mother said, laughing happily, at the concern her daughter had for family time. 'But I don't know what we're going to have yet. I was thinking maybe we'd just order in a few pizzas that night, how does that sound?' _

_Brittany paused for a moment, deep in thought before replying_

_'I don't think pizza is such a good idea, Mom. I mean, Santana and I are going to have Breadstix on Friday, and Breadstix serves Italian food...and pizza is Italian food, and you can't have Italian two days in a row, you know, you might grow a moustache.'_

_'I don't think you'd grow a moustache from eating a pizza, sweetheart'_

_'But Santana might, and I don't think she'd want to have a moustache, and I don't think I'd want her to have one either, even if it would be funny at first...' she said in her signature dreamy kind of ramble that her mother adored. _

_'Santana, eh?' her mother asked. 'And is Santana coming over for dinner on Saturday, then?'_

_'Yes, of course she is, Mom. I invited her to, so she will,' Brittany stated matter-of-factly. _

_'Brittany, next time please ask before you invite your friends over. If you wanted to invite her over you should have asked, and we probably would say yes, but you need to check these things with me or your dad first...' her mother said, slightly flustered that her daughters marvellously jumbled and creative mind sometimes made her forget some of these basics of etiquette. _

_'Oh, yeah, um...sorry Mom, that's what I meant. I'm going to ask her for dinner. Can she?' _

_Allison Pierce just chuckled at her daughter before telling her it was fine with her. Then, sensing something else, she continued, 'So...Santana huh? So you girls are talking again?'_

_'What do you mean? We weren't not talking...' Brittany asked, confused. _

_'Well, what I mean is, honey, is that for most of your life you two girls have been inseparable and you'd always be over at hers, or she'd always be here, and when you weren't together, you'd talk about her a lot – like you do with all your friends, sweetie, but her more than the others, like you were the absolute best of friends, but then all of a sudden she doesn't come over nearly as much, and you don't say you're going over to her as much either, and you've barely mentioned her name to me for almost six months, Brittany,' her mother says. 'I thought you must have had a big fight or something and weren't speaking.' _

_'Well,' Brittany says, 'We were fighting, but we didn't stop speaking to each other or anything,' Brittany says, vaguely, trying to cut off this line of questioning until Saturday, until Santana is here with here to help her answer all her mother's questions. _

_'Were you fighting over a boy again? Who was it this time? Was it that Puckerman boy? Or I know, that nice Mike Chang, I hear he's got a set of abs on him that could charm the knickers off the queen!' her mother said, giggling and blushing lightly. _

_'Ohmygod, mother!' Brittany exclaimed, scandalised. 'No, we were not fighting over a boy,' she says, committing to the half-truth, hoping to shut down the path this conversation was turning 'And besides, even if we were, it wouldn't be over Mike Chang – he's like an Asian big brother I never had – and it certainly wouldn't be over Puck! Ew!' _

_'Then...what were you fighting about, darling?'_

_'I...I really don't want to talk about it Mom. Please can we not talk about it?'_

_Her mother sighs, knowing her daughter will tell her when she's ready. _

_'Of course, Sunshine,' and Brittany smiles at the familiar childhood nickname. 'Tell Santana she can come over around half-seven.' _

_Brittany nodded duly and left the kitchen. She walked outside to sit on the porch swing on their front verandah to use the phone so that she would be away from curious, prying ears when she spoke to Santana. _

_'Hey Britt,' Santana said brightly when she answered Britt's call, answering on the first tone. 'What's the news?'_

_'We're on for half-seven on Saturday'_

_'Ok. Good. Are you sure you're ready for this, Britt? Its okay to have second thoughts if you want, you know...' _

_'Aww, San, you're so sweet,' Britt said, hearing the worried trepidation in her girlfriend's voice. 'Yes, baby, I'm sure. Are you?'_

_'Not in the slightest...I'm scared absolutely shitless,' her girlfriend said. 'But they're your parents, and you're ready, and this is what you want, so I will be there, the whole way, no matter what.' _

_Brittany couldn't help but smile. _

_'I love you, Santana' she said, dropping her voice low, just in case. 'Thank you for being you.'_

_Santana didn't know how to respond to the sweetness, so she just nodded. And even though she knew Brittany couldn't see it, she knew that deep down in her heart Brittany knew what she was doing. _

_'Hey Britt?' she asked after a moment, 'How should I dress for this?' _

_Confused, Brittany answered thoughtfully, 'I think that hands work best,' she said. 'I tried using Lord Tubbington as a butler once but he was useless, and I can't get my time-machine to work yet, so I can't have a perpetual-future-me do it, so hands are usually the best way. Though you could try your feet. But I don't know how successful you'll be with those cute dainty little toes of yours,' she finishes. _

_Santana let out hearty belly laugh at the literallness with which Brittany addressed the question. 'No, no, Britt, babe, I mean, like, what should I wear?' _

_'Oh, I guess just sort of normal casual street clothes? I mean, that's what we discussed, right? Because anything else and it might call attention to something going on and even though something totally is with us we want to make things known on our terms?' _

_'That's right, we totally do. You got it, babe. Should I drive myself or do you want to come get me?'_

_'If you can drive yourself that'd be fine with me, San, I don't think I'll be able to borrow the Volvo.'_

_'You got it babe,' Santana said. 'I love you and I'll see you soon. Bye.'_

_'Bye.' _

_Ten minutes later, as she was putting Lord Tubbington through his evening callisthenics and positive affirmations (he did need to learn to take better care of himself, after all) she received a text from Santana. _

_**I like it when you call me baby. :)**_

_And about a minute after that she received a follow-up:_

_**I also like it when you call me yours. ;) xo**_

_She fell asleep that evening knowing yet another way to make her amazing girlfriend feel good, and that always led to very good dreams. _

And now it was 19.23 on Saturday, and Santana was a bundle of nerves as she drove up to the house and parked her car at the end of the driveway. She closed her eyes and took a few calming breaths to mentally prepare herself for what she knew was going to be a mentally taxing evening, before once again opening them, stepping out of the car, walking right into a smiling Brittany S Pierce.

'Hi, Santana,' she said, greeting the latina at her car. Then, quickly looking in every possible direction to make sure no one was around and watching them, she planted a quick, chaste kiss on her girlfriend's lips and said softly 'you look really pretty tonight, San.'

She was done up casually in a pair of new skinny jeans and a red form-fitting tee shirt that fell limply off one shoulder, exposing one seductive black bra strap. It was simple, and casual as they agreed, but she still looked smouldering. But the fact that Brittany didn't call her _hot _or _sexy_ but just pretty, in its innocent simplicity, somehow made the butterflies already flapping around in her stomach flip a few loop-de-loops.

'Thanks, B. You look very nice yourself,' she said, looking her girlfriend over appreciatively. She, too, was dressed simply and very casually, in a flower-patterned sun dress with just the right cut to show off her curves nicely without being too revealing. The effect of that dress on her toned dancers' body was very good, indeed, Santana thought.

They had agreed beforehand that until they actually told her parents, until they actually said the words, they weren't going to touch each other, they weren't going to have any outward displays of intimacy beyond what would be acceptable or expected for two best friends. They came to the conclusion because they thought if they did otherwise, it would be too easy to fall back into the familiar, to rely on hints and allusions, rather than just coming out with the truth. The best, they decided, was to just tell the truth, be quick about it, and get it over with, like ripping off a plaster. So, with one more brief moment of physical intimacy, in which they rubbed each other's arms briefly for reassurance, Brittany sighed and asked,

'Are you ready, San?'

'As ready as I'm ever going to be.'

And that was enough for Brittany. She nodded, and led her by the arm – in purely platonic fashion, of course – into the house, calling in a sing-song voice, 'Guess who's heeeeeereeeeee?'

At first, it was very awkward, being in that house purposely when everyone was there, rather than hoping for the exact opposite, talking to and being embraced by people whom she knew so very well, but hadn't really seen or interacted with in quite a while, as they asked how she was, complimented her new clothes and haircut, asked how she was doing in school and other such things. It was nice, of course, but to say that Santana wasn't feeling at least a bit awkward for a while would have been a lie.

Eventually, the awkwardness died down and gave way to easy comfort as they all sat down around the dinner table and began to eat, without, she always noted with happiness, a stern gracia beforehand as would be the norm in her abuela's presence.

'So Santana,' Mike, Brittany's dad, said as they were sitting down to eat. 'Brittany told us we couldn't order pizza tonight because you girls had Breadstix last night and you can't eat Italian two days in a row unless you want to grow a moustache,' he said, his eyes and voice smiling with delight in his daughters' eccentricity as he spoke, 'so I figured instead that I'd fire up my world famous spicy meat loaf. I hope that's okay. Do you still like my meat loaf?' He asked, gesturing for her to hand him her plate so he could serve her food.

'Mr P,' Santana said, 'for as long as I live, I don't think there would ever be any circumstances where I wouldn't LOVE your meatloaf. Lay it on me!' she continued, happily. From then on, the dinner part of the evening went on swimmingly and uneventfully.

But dinner, like all things must, came to an end, and as the table was cleared, and Mr and Mrs Pierce were getting ready to take their after dinner coffees into the sofa in the family room, they knew it was time. Santana's nerves were wound so tight she thought she might burst if something didn't happen soon, and at that very moment, Brittany said to her parents,

'Mom, Dad, wait a minute. Could you sit down for a bit? There's something that I – we – need to talk to you about'

'Are you alright sweetheart?' Mike asked, concerned

'Is something wrong, girls? Do you need our help? Is Sue terrorising the Cheerios again? Do you want us to call Principal Figgins?' her mother asked, rattling off questions at near lighting speed.

'No, no, its nothing like that Mom, Dad,' she said, getting up to placate them both with a quick hug before sitting down next to Santana, in a conspicuously different chair than she had sat in during dinner. 'Its nothing like that, don't worry. But there is something important, that I – we – need to tell you' she said, pausing for breath, her parents waiting in silent anticipation for her to continue. Brittany then deliberately took Santana's hand, threaded their fingers together, and placed it on the table in front of them, taking a deep, steadying breath before continuing,

'Mom, Dad. Santana and I are a couple. We're in a relationship. We are each others' girlfriend and we love each other.'

The silence was palpable. It was so thick you could cut it with a butter knife. For a full five minutes all that existed was the two couples, sat across from each other at the Pierce family kitchen table, one with fingers intertwined and hopeful expressions on their faces, the others silent and seemingly in shock, their mouths agape.

Slowly, Mike and Allison's faces returned to their normal smiling faces, and their breath intake could be heard at a more regular pace and interval.

'So,' Mike asked, slowly and deliberately, 'are you telling us you're a lesbian, Sunshine?'

Brittany was so relieved to hear his voice again, to hear him speak softly and using her nickname from when she was a baby, that she got a bit flustered, and when she answered him, her well planned out speech went out the window.

'Yes. No. Well, sort of. Yes...,' she began, clearly flustered. She was so flustered, in fact that Santana had to lean into her, and whisper soothing messages in her ear whilst massaging her knickles, in order to calm her down. This of course did not go unnoticed by Brittany's parents.

'Santana is a lesbian Daddy, I'm...fluid. I'm not exactly sure what label to use, and I'm not sure I want to use a label, but if you had to use one, I think I like bi-curious best,' she said

'I think you mean bi-sexual, baby,' Santana said softly, squeezing her girlfriend's hand gently.

'Oh, right. Yeah, bisexual not bi-curious. Anyway, its like this, Dad,' she said, slowly starting to regain her composure, and explain. 'We've been talking for a while with Ms. Holliday at school, because I was really confused. And I still am, about some things, but not about this, and Ms Holliday helped a lot. She said that its like this...everything is on a scale, some people tip more to one side, some tip more to another, and other people are somewhere in between. Santana only likes girls, so she's a lesbian. But I'm attracted to both boys and girls, so you could say that I'm bisexual. But the problem with that is, while I find boys attractive too, I prefer girls. I fall in love with girls, not boys. And according to Ms. Holliday, that's the important part, ultimately. Not who you find attractive, but who you fall in love with. And I fall in love with girls. Well, a girl. Santana. I'm a Santana-sexual!' she said, gaining confidence as she spoke and giggling at her own joke.

'I see...' Mike said slowly, swallowing hard, clearly trying to digest all the new information that had been thrown at him.

'How long have you been going out?' Allison Pierce asked.

Santana and Brittany looked at each other. They were still quite unsure as to how to answer this question, as they weren't sure what time to mark their 'being together' from. After only some hesitation, Brittany told her mother confidently,

'Since spring break Sophomore year'

'Britt, no I don't think that counts' Santana said quietly to her girlfriend.

'Why not?'

'Because sex isn't dating' She said, speaking directly to her girlfriend, and therefore oblivious to the raised eyebrows on both of her girlfriend's parents when they realised that meant that they had been having sex for approximately a year.

'That was your rule, not mine.'

'What do you mean?'

'I mean that as far as I was concerned, I knew ever since that first time we did it at that party in Danny Fraser's basement what this was and what we were. So I considered us to be together from that point on. I mean, yeah, we were both still with boys then, and we didn't do it that often, but it was special and I knew it was different, so to me, we were together during those times. Even if you didn't. Even if you didn't know yet then, I did. I knew that I just had to wait until you figured it out, too' she said, kissing Santana softly and chastely on the lips quickly before pulling away.

'Baby...' was all Santana could think of as a response.

'I see,' said Mrs Pierce. 'And when do you think things started to get more serious between you two, girls?'

'I dunno, maybe 4 or 5 months ago? Basically when we started talking with Ms. Holliday,' Santana said. 'Why?'

'That's about the same time you stopped coming over regularly, and Brittany stopped mentioning you all the time...' she said, the wheels in her head clearly putting the pieces together in her head. 'And just the other day when I asked why, Brittany said that starting about then up until recently you were fighting...Brittany, Santana...were you girls in a fight about how you felt about each other?'

Both girls looked down sheepishly, and gave non committal answers.

'Brittany Susan Pierce'

'Yes, Mom, we were'

'Not really,' Santana chimed in. 'We were fighting more about...what it meant. But mostly we were fighting about coming out.'

Allison and Mike just sat there, patiently, waiting for her to continue, to tell them.

'I just...I wasn't ready to come out. I'm still not, not really. I'm still just so scared of what people might say, of what might happen,' she began. 'But we fought about it. A lot. And we both did and said a lot of hurtful things because of it, and...' she trailed off, not quite sure to communicate her point just how painful those fights were, for both of them, but how remorseful she was for ever making their daughter cry. 'I'm sorry,' was all she was able to get out before she started sniffling, 'I'm sorry for being selfish and making your daughter cry and...' and she didn't get any more out before the tears came and she buried her head in Brittany's shoulder, whilst Brittany rubbed her back in small circles, giving her support, whispering to her

'No, baby, no...shhh...don't cry. Shhh. Please don't cry, remember, we talked about this? You're not selfish, and its okay, I made you cry too, its not only your fault...shhhhh...No, Honey, please don't cry, what we get up to in private is nobody else's business...shhhh...you don't need to feel bad about being scared to come out, we'll only do it when you're ready, I promise...shhh...all that matters is that we know how we feel...we love each other and I'm yours and you're mine, and that's it...shhh don't cry...,' she continued this way until Santana was able to compose herself, all whilst looking at her parents, distraught, over the shorter brunette's head.

Watching the exchange as the two girls interacted, Mike Pierce could not help but think back to the first time he had met the little Latina girl who had so clearly captured his daughters' heart. Mr and Mrs Pierce had first met Santana Lopez when her daughter was seven years old, in the girls' first day of the first grade. To this day the girls had refused to tell them the whole story, saying it was a 'best friend secret', but the chain of events, as Mike Pierce was able to understand it was that the Lopez girl and her daughter were both in the same first grade classroom, taught by Mrs DiMarco, and were both shunned by the other children, Santana for being both from the 'bad' part of town and a Latina – the only one in her entire year – and Brittany for being well, herself. What happened the rest of that first day until he had come and picked his daughter up (and met Santana Lopez for the first time) he had never found out, but he did know that when they emerged from the school that day, his daughter was dragging a tiny little Mexican girl behind her, eager to introduce her father to her new best friend, "Sand-tana" (for their first two years of friendship Brittany called Santana Sandtana because her little mouth couldn't quite make the sounds right, until right about her 10th birthday). The little girl was covered in sand and blood, and he was afraid it was her own and he asked her, very worried, if she was alright. She had calmly replied that the blood wasn't hers, it belonged to a rude little girl called Alice who called Brittany stupid, and so she calmly explained how she punched the mean little in the face in the sandbox and then shoved her face in the sand and force-fed it to her until the teacher came and she got in trouble, and did he know where her Abuela was because she wanted to tell her all about it, which was then followed by some rambling Spanish that he couldn't understand. At first, he was worried about Brittany and the Latina, thinking she might be either a bad influence or a loose cannon, but it turned out that as the days passed, they both influenced each other in the best ways, the best parts of each other rubbing off on the other. And it was very good, he thought, for his misunderstood little girl to have a best friend who understood her and defended and protected her without question.

Of course, as the girls grew older, their relationship had changed, and as sometimes happens in childhood they would grow a bit farther apart, and then come back together to be a bit closer, in infinite possibilities of combinations. That was normal, and neither he, nor his wife, were concerned at all, especially because even when the two girls had "drifted apart", they were still as thick as thieves by most standards.

And then as the girls got older still their relationship continued to change and grow and develop. By the time they hit puberty they were both more sure of themselves and their own individual personalities than ever before. And their relationship changed, yet again. It became more adult. It became rooted, entrenched deeply within both of them, subtle, constant, powerful. Very mature, even. It became something that was able to withstand even the fickleness of junior high and the first years of high school.

He really had no idea how he hadn't seen this coming, at all, before now, when the signs were right in front of him as clear as day. The girls' relationship had clearly developed, through whatever means, to mutual respect bordering on adoration, to a firm friendship, to something much more subtle, much more constant, and stronger: a deep and abiding love. Honestly, he thought to himself, if there is ever such a thing as true love, its what his daughter and Santana have, what they had developed whether consciously or unconsciously, over the nearly ten years they'd known each other, slowly growing, developing, changing, evolving, until their love was so strong, so constant, so bright and so subtle it was like the sun in the sky – a necessary constant that most people don't even notice anymore because they are so used its presence, conspicuous only during its absence. That explains it, he thought. That's why I didn't see it coming – because it was there for so long we all had gotten used to it before any of us, themselves included, even knew what it was.

He sighed inwardly to himself. Whilst this was not the direction he had originally thought of for his daughter, and this life she now claimed ownership of for herself – one that would be inherently harder on her for no reason, by virtue of society harshly and negatively judging her and people like her, for no other reason than they people they fall in love with – was not one that he would have chosen for her. He was happy that the girls had found each other. He knew that if this was what they were, he knew of know better partner for his daughter than Santana. He knew of no other person whom he would more gladly trust his daughter's heart than the girl who punched a total stranger for her the day they met when they were seven years old for calling her stupid; he had certainly come to care a great deal about Santana as well over the years due to the amount of time she had spent in his home, and he was fairly certain that there was no other girl out there better suited for her, be they lesbian, fluid, bi-, tri-, pan-, multi-, or whatever else sexual, than his daughter. He knew there was no other girl out there in the whole wide world that was better suited to handle the boisterous, tough yet sensitive Latina, nor anyone else who so easily brought the best out of the the petite little Mexican than his daughter. With Brittany, Santana was calm, rarely raised her voice, attentive, kind, and many more good qualities besides; she brought out the best in the petite Mexican girl who hid her anxiety and insecurities behind biting sarcasm and a 'baddest bitch' attitude. Yes, if this was the way that God had made them, and this was indeed who they are, then he could at least take some solace in the fact that, though their lives would certainly be more difficult than it would had they been born straight, at least they would have each other. Yes, he thought, there was no one he was more sure held his daughter's heart – but, he was also certain there was no one else he could trust more with it, no one who would be more careful and reverent of it because as surely as the Latina had his daughter's heart, it was also clear as day that the hot-headed Latina so willingly entrusted her own heart to his daughter.

'I can't say I'm particularly thrilled,' Mr Pierce said, after all was said and done, holding up a placating hand for them to hear him out, 'it isn't every day you learn that your daughter was born in such a way that automatically sets her up as an oppressed minority who has to fight for her civil rights, and to be accepted by society, all the sort of basic human rights that when she was growing up we took for granted. I had hoped with all my heart that I would be able to protect my daughter and give her a life as relatively easy as possible,' he said, sighing. 'Now I know that that isn't a possibility, because this world is unfortunately full of a lot of closed-minded bigots. My daughter prefers other girls. So what?,' he said ruefully, his eyes half-glazed in thought. 'Brittany, I know we tried to raise you without religion, but my grandmother, your great-granny, used to tell me when she was still alive, "God doesn't make mistakes". And the proof is right here standing in front of my face,' he said, choking up slightly but swallowing hard to force the tears at bay, 'You are a beautiful, smart, kind, loving, creative, and tenacious young woman, with countless great qualities and talents, who just happens to have been born loving women. And that is okay. It is perfectly natural, and normal, and okay, and beautiful, and I love you and accept just the way you are exactly for who you are, and don't let anyone else tell you otherwise,' he said, getting up from his seat, pulling his daughter out of her chair and into a bone-crushing bear-hug. 'Don't you dare change for anyone,' he whispered in her ear.

He put his daughter down and his eyes focused on her girlfriend.

'And not only that, you are lucky enough to have found, at your young age, such a wonderful, fiesty, intelligent, protective woman, who has known you for so many years and who knows you so well with so many of her own amazing unique qualities who also just happens to have been born loving women, who loves you and only asks that you love her in return. Make no mistake, we love and accept you, Santana Lopez, for exactly who you are, too,' he said grabbing her into an equally tight bear hug, and whispering in her ear 'If you ever need any help, with anything – anything at all – I want you to know you can come to me.'

'And as for you apologising for your fight, Santana,' he said as he sat back down, 'that is frankly none of my business. It seems to me that you two care about each other a great deal and have done a perfectly fine job of working through your own disagreements. You two are almost adults, I intend to treat you accordingly. As long as you treat each other with respect and kindness, what you do and fight over is not any of my business. If you need advice, I will of course be happy to impart what I've learned from living and loving on this planet a bit longer than you have, but only if you want it.'

'I have a question, girls,' Brittany's mother added, after silently watching and listening for most of the conversation. 'Are we the first people you've come out to?'

Both girls nod their heads in the affirmative and Brittany quietly replied, 'Yes'.

Her mothers eyes brimmed with tears as she said quietly,

'Thank you girls. I'm honoured that you chose us first.'

That was it, that's all she needed to say. Both girls rose out of their chairs and smiling widely they both hugged both of the elder Pierces. And it was a catharsis, a milestone had been passed. Brittany and Santana together had smashed the first of the many obstacles lying in their path to openness and acceptance to pieces. And it was the most anxious, nerve-wracking thing Santana had ever done, but the catharsis from doing it, she thought, matched exquisitely.

'There is one more thing, though, Mom, Dad,' Brittany said after everyone had settled and a calm filled the house. Her father, looking at her from the counter, where he was pouring himself and his wife another cup of coffee, raised an eyebrow inquisitively, as if to say 'Go on, then, out with it'

'You aren't only the first people we're coming out to, you're the only ones. For a while, at least. San...San is...she's just not ready yet,' she sighed. 'She loves me and wants to be with me we know how much we mean to each other, but she's just not ready yet, and she's very scared. We only did this tonight at all because I really wanted to tell you and –'

'Brittany Susan Price, you shouldn't force her to come out, not to us or to anyone! You should know better!' her mother scolded. But Santana cut her off.

'She didn't force me, or guilt me, or pout or anything like that Mrs P,' she said. ' I wanted to do this for her. She's right that I'm not ready to come out to my family, or at school or anything like that, and she's also right its because I'm scared. I'm terrified, actually. Of what people might say, of what might happen, of what people might do. And this is one of those things that once you're out, you're out. So, I'm just...terrified. But Brittany she...,' Santana leaned back, resting her head on Brittany's shoulder, trying to collect her thoughts and figure out the best way to phrase what she was trying to say. 'Brittany has been so supportive, so amazing, she's always looking out for me and taking care of me, I wanted to do this for her. We talked for a long time the other day, about our relationship, what we mean to each other, coming out, the whole thing, and I realised that I've been being so selfish. I mean I have this amazing chick here who is so great and so good to me and all she wants – the only thing she wants from me is to be open about our relationship. She wants to be able to call me her girlfriend in public and have me call her mine. She wants us to go out on dates and not have to pretend to just be friends. She wants to be able to hold my hand as we walk through the halls at school and kiss me in public when she wants to. To go to prom together. Just like any other couple does. And yeah, obviously, I want those things too. But we can't do them, not yet, because we aren't out, we aren't public. And we can't be, not yet. Because I am just so terrified. But I understand that its very hard for her, every day we have to pretend and hide I see her sad and I know that she's hurting and it breaks my heart, especially because I know its all my fault. So I promised her – myself and her – that we'd work towards that goal, of being able to be out, and proud. I told her that we'd work at it. We'd take baby steps, and maybe it will take a lot longer than she'll like, maybe it will take shorter than I expect, but the end goal is for us to be able to be out, and proud, together, by senior prom. And this was that first step. Brittany is much more comfortable being out about this than I am, and she wanted to be able to have somewhere to go, and someone to talk to, about this. She wanted to be able to talk about this – about me, about her, about our relationship – with someone who isn't me; with you, Mrs. P. And because I love your daughter, I told her I would do this for her. And honestly?,' she said, finally losing steam, 'I'm glad I did. Because until now I didn't know what it was like to have a place completely safe for us, where we don't have to worry or pretend or hide. Its nice having that safe place of freedom and acceptance. So, for providing that for us, even if its just for now, thank you,' Santana finished, looking like she had just run a marathon.

'Mom, Dad, please don't tell anyone,' Brittany said. 'We've put a lot of trust in you by telling you, Santana especially. If you could just keep it a secret for a little while longer for us? It would mean everything to Santana if you'd keep this secret of hers – of ours – until she's ready. Please?'

'I'm borderline offended you felt you even had to ask us that, Brittany,' Mrs Pierce said, 'Of course we aren't going to tell anyone. We'll keep your secret safe as long as you ask us to, my Sunshine. You are our daughter and we love and respect you. And we've known Santana almost as long and we love and respect her, and her issues and boundaries as well. Mum's the word, until you say otherwise, okay?' she said, forcefully, before continuing in a much softer tone, 'Do you know when you think you are going to be ready to tell your parents, Santana? Because we would be happy to help you tell them, if you need us, when the time comes'

'Honestly, no. I'm still scared shitless at the thought of doing it, and at what they might say and how they might respond. This sort of thing isn't really done in our culture. But then I think well, maybe if they're as cool and accepting as you guys have been it won't be so hard at all and we'll wind up wondering what I was so scared about in the first place; but I'm not there yet, like, at all. A lot of other little things have to happen first. I have to take a lot more baby steps before I can tell Mami and Papi, let alone Abuela. The same holds true for the glee club. Honestly at this point I think we'll just take things as they come and see what happens,' Santana said.

The events of the day surrounding their coming out to Brittany's parents was emotionally and mentally draining to all parties involved, and afterwards, no one was able to do much of anything. Brittany and Santana eventually decided they needed some alone time as a couple and they made their way up to Brittany's room, after her dad looked at them both pointedly and told them to behave. After a few hours of a tender romantic session of soft lady kisses, the exhaustion hit both of them like rocks.

'Britt, I think I'm gonna go home now, baby'

'What? No. Why?'

'Britt, I'm exhausted, and so are you. Today was so draining I just want to sleep.'

'Sleep here, with me. I thought you loved sleeping in the same bed as me?'

'You know I do, babe, and for more than one reason,' Santana said, waggling her eyebrows at her girlfriend cheekily. 'But I don't think we should push our luck tonight. I mean we just told them tonight that we're not only together, but have been and have been sleeping together for a year,' she said. 'I don't think that's something we should be throwing in your parents' faces right now,' Santana said, very keenly aware of how lucky Brittany, and by proxy, she, was.

'But baby,' Brittany said, her voice throaty and erotic, slowly moving down to the edge of the bed to where her girlfriend stood, straightening her clothes and trying to gather her things, so she could tease and caress her, 'if you leave now, how will I show you how thankful I am for doing this for me?' she asked, raising her eyebrows seductively. 'Besides, my Dad basically pretty much said they're treating us like adults now and aren't going to pry into what we do, that's pretty cool right? Its basically a free pass to get it on as much as we want,' Brittany said, excitedly, wrapping one arm around the smaller woman and bringing the other to her breast and squeezing in just the way she knows she likes, crashing their lips together, capturing the moan Santana emitted in her waiting mouth.

After a few minutes of exquisite pleasure in that position, they broke apart and Brittany said again, 'Besides, the good thing about them knowing about us sleeping together for so long know is that they know that we like to fuck, without any silly preconceived notions about either one of our virginities, leaving us free to explore our sexuality openly...'

It made a lot of sense. A lot of sense. Like, a lot. It was probably the smartest thing Brittany had ever said – ANYONE has ever said, even – Santana was willing to bet. Oh dear sweet Jesus did she want to let herself be convinced by the sexy girl's logic. Still, she thought sadly, not tonight. It wouldn't feel right. And so very begrudgingly, she resolutely steeled her resolve and said,

'Britt, _believe me_ when I say this, I am so proud of you and us and so happy at the response we've been given by your family, and you were looking so pretty all day, and now after I've got my mack on a bit you look super hot with your hair and make-up all messed up like that,' she began, but keeping Brittany at a large enough gap to know that her words weren't an invitation. 'And believe me, babe, one THOUSAND percent believe me when I tell you that if this were in any other circumstances whatsoever I would throw you on that bed, and rip the clothes off your body so fast that you'd need to buy new ones and we'd fuck each other's brains out with the damn door open for anyone to see, I'm so fucking hot for you right now,'

'Well, hello sailor,' was the flirtatious and altogether unhelpful comment her girlfriend decided to interrupt her with, before Santana was able to continue, saying,

'BUT, I think its a bad idea tonight. First of all because I don't think you quite fully appreciate yet just how awesome your parents are in how they're treating us, but also because I'm seriously running on fumes and no matter what I do, I'll be asleep within 15 minutes so I need to leave very soon in order to make it within the "make it home alive" window at this point. But also,' she said, exhaling loudly, 'I think your parents need to spend some time tonight alone with you. I think they need their little girl tonight more than I need my sexy baby. Some family time just the four of you tonight might be good for you, B.' Santana said, moving away from the bed and putting on her shoes.

'Now come on, baby, straighten your clothes out and come walk me to my car,' she said, offering her hand out to Brittany. She did as she was bidden.

After she had escorted Santana to her car and several minutes of soft sweet lady kisses goodbye, and a promise of a text when she got home safely, Brittany made her way back into the house. Entering the kitchen she prepared herself a small bowl of ice cream and took it with her into the sunken living room where she joined her parents and younger sister on the couch watching large tv on the wall. There was nothing particularly good on, of course, but it felt good to be able to spend time with her family like this, after the emotionally draining evening they had just had. Of course, it also distracted her from how horny she happened to be at that very moment as well.

'For what its worth,' her father said, as she settled into the couch cushions between her mother and father, 'I'm glad you listened to Santana about having sex tonight, Sunshine,' he said, noticing her daughters' eyes go wide and a slight pink tinge crawl up her face as he looked at her from his peripheral vision. 'I think it was a very adult thing to let you both cool off and get some time alone with your emotions, rather having loud, rough sex that would wake and possibly terrify your sister,' he said, winking at her as he grabbed her by the shoulders into a strong side-hug, shocking and horrifying her just enough to forget how horny she was for Santana. For their own parts, after both thier elder and younger daughters had gone to bed, Mr and Mrs Pierce remained in their sunken family room and watched the television, without really seeing anything on the screen long into the night, pre-occupied with the fact that from then on nothing would ever be the same.


	3. Blame it on the AlcoholPalabras de Amor

**AN: 1. First off, I'm usure whether or not my first two author's note on the previous chapters showed up, because I can't see them when I read from the normal page, so if you see it (or don't see it) let me know and I'll act accordingly. **

**Um, in case you didn't figure this out, I'm trying to hit as many of the major/fun aspects of the show, but deal with them from my own perspective within my own new 'universe' so episodes order may be switched around, some will be ignored, etc, and in case you haven't noticed, I've gotten them together a year earlier than in the show, which means where I feel necessary I may speed up things so that things that happened in senior year may happen in junior year, etc. Basically playing around with canon about to suit how I want the story to go and suit my 'what if' situation. I hope you enjoy. Happy Reading. **

Usually, Santana liked being the 'little spoon'. She liked how her more petite body seemed to fit perfectly inside Brittany's lankier, more toned, dancer's frame. She liked the way she felt safe and protected wrapped up in her girl's strong arms. She liked everything about it, She was all about that shit. She spent so much time being strong; if she knew one thing for certain, she knew that kids were _cruel_. So he has always had to spend so much energy, when they were in public maintaining the walls and defences around herself, making sure there was not even a single chink in her armour, because if there was, the kids at McKinley would have a fucking field day with her and Britt, and she couldn't allow that to happen. So she loved it when in private they could curl up together and she could let the taller girl hold her in her arms and make her feel small, safe, and protected. She liked how she could feel enveloped in trust and love when Brittany held her. She liked letting Brittany see her vulnerable side, sometimes; she liked her being the only person aside from perhaps her mother and abuela who ever got to see that side of her. And so, she liked to be the little spoon. But not today, not now. Not after the clusterfuck of awful that had been how that party at the dwarf's place had ended. Now, in this very minute, she wanted – no, she very much needed – to be the 'big spoon'. To be the protector, to have Brittany snuggle her body up close to hers as she wrapped her arms around her girl possessively, as she played with her golden hair, folding it lovingly behind her ear as she teased light butterfly kisses all along her arms, collarbone, neck, face and ears, all the while, murmuring sweet Spanish nothings – _palabras de amor_, words of love – in her ear as she did so, if she was lucky causing Brittany to to rub up against her coyly in a sensitive region, as an added bonus for both of them. And since that's what she needed to do, that's damn well what she was doing.

**

'No puedo pensar en nada más que en ti,' she whispers sweetly, kissing the blonde's long graceful neck.

'Tú eres más de lo que soñaba,' another kiss, folding whisps of her golden hair up behind her ear. A few more light kisses.

'Cuando no estoy contigo yo te extraño todo el tiempo,' more kisses, light, teasing, slowly making their way across Brittany's neck and face and jawline to the erogenous zones around her ear.

'San...Santana, baby,' she purrs, 'I love it when you speak to me in Spanish, its so sexy'

'Yeah? Te gusta cuando hablar contigo el idioma? Hmm?'

'Yeah'

'Tell me'

'Baby, I love it when you talk to me in Spanish. Its so hot. It turns me on'

More kisses up and down her neck. Santana spends a significant amount of time nibbling on Brittany's earlobe, as well as the other erogenous zones up and down her neck. As she travels on in her ministrations, her hands drawing small patterns on Brittany's tanned arms and flat stomach whilst her mouth focuses on her neck, she hears a purr escape her girlfriend's lips.

'Do you want me to tell you what I've been saying?'

'I dunno, I don't want to stop the Spanish, it sounds so good'

'Oh don't worry baby, I'll keep speaking my sweet _palabras de amor_ in your ear for as long as you want, I'll just tell you what I'm saying means after. Would you like that?'

'Yes'

'Okay,' Santana says, linking the fingers of her free hand with those in Brittany's hand on that same side, and bringing the fingers up for a light kiss on the knuckles and palm, her ministrations all sweetness and tenderness, not lustful or carnal at all. 'So far, I've told you that "I can't think about anything but you", and then I said that "you're the one I dream about",' she continued, kissing the fingers again, before playing with them idly, 'and then I told you that "when I'm not with you, I miss you all the time",' she says, planting a few more light kisses on her girlfriend's neck, before she rolls them both over slightly, changing positions so that she has better access to her girlfriend's collarbone.

'Y tambien..."and also...",'

'Te quiero mucho mi corazon..."I love you deeply, my heart",'

Another kiss. Another. One more, then two. Brittany's eyes softly flutter closed, enjoying the affectionate closeness.

'Mi amor, basarte es como ver las estrellas..."My love, to kiss you is like seeing the stars",'

Another kiss.

'Tu pelo es como el sol y tus ojos son como el mar..."Your hair is like the sun, and your eyes are like the sea",'

More kisses.

'Soy muy afortunada de conocerte y aún más afortunada de ser capaz de quererte..."I am fortunate to know you, and even more fortunate to be able to love you"

'Y...me vuelves loca y Me encanta saber que estás conmigo, Cariña..."and...you drive me crazy and I love to know that you're with me, honey",'

Brittany foils her plan of conquering all her erogenous zones that are visible, because at that she crashes her own mouth to that of Santana's and kissed her passionately for several minutes, trying to show her in kisses what Santana has been telling her in Spanish.

'Santana Maria Lopez! For such a self-proclaimed heartless baddest bitch around, you sure know how to speak from the heart to make mine melt!' she cries after she breaks the kiss with the latina. 'What am I going to do with you, you're so sappy!'

'Yeah, but don't tell anyone, I've got a reputation to protect'

'Not with me'

'No, never with you, babe. Never, Besides even if I tried, you'd be able to see right through me – you always have been – so what would be the point in trying?'

'Awww, honey'

'Of course I'm passionate, babe, I'm Latin. I mean, you've seen me when I get fired up...,'

'Yeah I have, and its sexy,' she said playfully

'Not as sexy as you' Santana counters.

'But seriously baby, I'm trying to tell you something serious. You've been my friend since we were seven years old. We've always been close. You've seen me at my absolute best and my absolute worst. I think you're the only one who has – you're the only one I've ever trusted enough to see the real, messy, passionate emotional me. Especially in the past few years, and even more so when we were doing our little "what are we?" thing. You are, and have always been, consistently the only one who has seen me as a real person, with emotions and feelings and doesn't think I'm just a massive bitch all the time to everyone with out reason, and not only that, you can tell when I'm happy or sad or anxious or whatever, and you always know how to say or do exactly the right thing at exactly the right time when I need it. And that's why you're the only one I've ever been comfortable _letting_ get that close and seeing my hot mess of emotions up close and personal. They're only for people that matter, Brittany. They're only for people that love me. They aren't for the rest of the peasants, fuck those losers. This is something that I'm glad I'm sharing especially with you, Britt. Thank you, really,' she said, and she rolled over to fuse her lips with those of the breathless, watery-eyed blonde in s passionate, but tender kiss. When they separated, Brittany told Santana,

'You are probably the sweetest girl ever, and I'm crazy about you.' She continued, 'though I wish you would try a bit harder to be nicer to some of the people in Glee, they aren't all bad'

'I wish I could too...'

'I said would, not could'

'I heard you fine'

'Santana'

'Its not that I don't try, you know that. I mean, we sit at their table most days for lunch, not with the Cheerios. I try to engage in their conversations with them, listen to them, all that, but it doesn't matter to them, for me I'm just "Satan" and I'm only going to be mean to them and put them down, so why bother trying to be nice and give her a shot, right? So why should I even bother trying, Britt? If they won't do the same for me? You know they talk a big game about acceptance and friendship and being some kind of big, gay, "glee family" - but if that's the case, they're either really shit at this whole family thing, or are a bunch of hypocrites,' she said sadly.

'San, you are one of the nicest people I know. Maybe if you let them in a bit more, I'm sure they'll see it too, I mean, don't you like glee?'

'Of course I do. Even if they are a bunch of rejects from the nerd factory, I think I have more fun there, sitting with you singing in glee club and expressing myself with music like I can't with my words...more than Cheerios or any of my other activities. But don't tell anyone I said that,' she said, with a wink. 'And all that, despite my supposed "friends" there not treating me very well. Go figure.'

'Like I said, you're one of the nicest people I know...'

'You're the nicest person I know. You're like, the definition of nice. If nice had a spokeswoman it would be you...'

'Aww, thanks baby! Can I continue?'

Santana nodded in the affirmative, indicating she was done complimenting her girlfriend...temporarily.

'As I was saying, I know you're a nice person, Santana. But either they don't want to see it, or they can't, because you won't let them in. Maybe if you let them in...'

'What do you think I've been trying to do? And it does nothing'

'We were just at a party with a lot of them, Santana. Clearly they don't dislike you that much'

'I think they're just scared to not invite me'

'I don't think so San. I think maybe if you just opened up to them, maybe just a little bit more – not all the way, I know you don't like that, and to be honest, I like being the only one who knows all your little quirks –,' she says, smiling, tracing her fingers up her Latina girlfriend's strong, protective, arms. 'But even just a little bit more, I think they might get a glimpse of the Santana Lopez I know and love, the Santana who is my favourite person ever. If they could see you like I do, they won't have any choice _but_ to fall in love with you – but only as friends, of course, cos you, Santana Lopez, are spoken for,' she said passionately.

'...But what if they don't?' Santana asked softly.

'Impossible,' Brittany said. 'But, on the off chance that hell is freezing over and we're going to be eating sky bacon soon – oh, if that's true, we should get in on the ground floor of the flying-pig ranching business, Lord Tubbington knows a Tabby out in Dalton who –,'

'Britt, focus!'

'Oh, right, sorry. On the off chance that hell is freezing over, and they don't, well then I'll be here for you to protect you and make you feel better, just like you are for me when people make me sad. What is it that you always say, "fuck the peasants"?'

'"Lima Losers" is equally acceptable,' Santana said, giggling, loving the way it sounded when her innocent Brittany said the phrase 'fuck the peasants'.

'Fine, I'll try. I guess they aren't all so bad'

'Quinn's nice, we like Quinn.'

'Did you just "we" us?'

'I guess? Sorry, I just...'

'No, its fine, its just, weird, you know?'

'Yeah, definitely. But anyway, what I meant was we both, individually, used to and kind-of-possibly-maybe-still-are friends with Quinn. Yeah, she's a prom queen wannabee and for a church girl her skirt drops faster than mine when you look at me _that_ way, but she's not a bad person. We can trust her, she's even kind of fun sometimes.'

'Yeah, I guess Teen-Mom ain't so bad. But we kind of have that frenemies thing going on right now', Santana said, continuing 'As much crap as I give him, Kurt isn't so bad'

'Puck'

'Mike Chang'

'Wheezy has her moments' Santana added, begrudgingly.

'Its a start,' Brittany said. Pausing thoughtfully before continuing, 'That party was fun tonight though, huh? Pretty wild.'

'Yeah it was fun...until it wasn't.'

'I know,' Brittany sighed. 'Things definitely got out of hand. I'm sorry.'

'Not your fault, baby. Personally, I'm blaming Fish-lips.

They both let out exhausted, slightly weary sighs. The party had been mental. In a good way, towards the middle when Puck, Quinn and them had taken care of the alcohol and taught those nerds how to actually party like rock stars. But then, towards the end, not so much.

Brittany rolled over so that she was facing, rather than spooning, Santana, and propped up and adjusted her body appropriately so that she was looking straight into her girlfriend's caring eyes. 'Santana, look at me,' she said. 'I know you don't blame me, but I'm still sorry. And I know that you're hoping that they'll chock your little outburst to beer goggles, if they remember it at all, but you need to be prepared for what you want – what you're ready – to do if that isn't the case. They aren't all that clueless or stupid, and they weren't all that wasted. Most of them were, yes, so we might get lucky, but I think you should think about it,' she said, as Santana pouted, understanding her brilliant blonde girlfriend was probably right, like always. The same girlfriend who wouldn't let her pout, because she was currently kissing at the sides of her mouth, on the tip of her nose, her cheeks and chin, until her pout turned into a smile, albeit faint. Then she continued,

'I know that its scary and you're not ready yet, and I know I'm probably at least partially to blame at least slightly in your little outburst this evening, and for that I'm really sorry and I hope there is something I can do to make up for it,' she said coyly, waggling her eyebrows cheekily, 'but at the same time, remember, worst case scenario, we come out to the glee club and swear them to secrecy like we did with Mom and Dad. I mean, I know we're better and more talented than everyone else there, but they're our friends and I don't believe they would ever do anything to hurt us. I think, in a worst-case scenario situation, we can trust them. I mean, that is the eventual goal long term, right? To be out and proud? We'll have to tell them eventually. You promised, Santana.'

'Besides,' she added, 'remember that no matter what happens, I'll be right here by your side. We'll do it together, and you won't ever have to face it alone,' she said forcefully for good measure, before kissing her soundly. When they separated, she continued,

'But regardless of all of that, thank you. For how tonight ended. It could have ended a lot worse than it did, but it didn't. Thanks for taking me home when you did and just laying here with me like this. I really appreciate it.'

'You're acting like I rode in on some white horse to save you,' Santana said, laughing. 'When all I did was take you home, when I wanted to leave from the beginning anyway, and then get in bed and cuddle with you, which is totally a major hardship for me and I wouldn't have chosen to do with you anyway' she added, as they both laughed.

'Still, honey. Thank you.'

'It was my pleasure, Britt. Really. Besides,' the latina added, suddenly feeling frisky and playful, 'I gots to take care of my woman!' pouncing on her girlfriend's face, neck and chest and peppering it with kisses, making her squeal in surprise and delight.

_'You're going though, right?'_

_'Only if there's liquor, because a Rachel Berry party is not something I can do sober'_

_'San its alcohol awareness week'_

_'Exactly, and I'm aware of how awesome alcohol is' _

_Santana and Brittany had been to some shitty parties in their high school careers thus far, but Rachel's was by far the shittiest. It was the absolute worst. _

Seriously, Berry?_ Santana thought, _drink tickets and wine coolers? What do you think this is a booze cruise for Jesus? _She castigated her team-mate in her head, as she nearly shook with rage. _

Uh oh _Brittany thought. _Why did we think coming to this party was a good idea? I know its good for Santana to socialise with the rest of the glee kids so she will learn she has some real friends out there besides me, but she's getting all angry-shakey right now_ she thought fretfully _And really, I don't blame her, this party does suck. Looks like it will be up to those of us who have at least been to other parties before to show them how to party rock_ she added to herself, coming out of her reverie just in time for Santana to snap. _

_'Are you fucking kidding me, Man-Hands? Drink tickets? Wine coolers? Two drink maximum? I thought you said you wanted to have a party' Her comment was meant by general approval of the surrounding 'party'-goers. _

_'Yes, well, be that as it may, Santana,' she began, _

Oh, Rachel, you silly little sanctimonious unicorn, _Brittany thought, _If you ever want her to be your friend you need to learn to well...tone it down a bit _as she was focusing back on the conversation at hand, she heard Rachel Berry still talking, _

_'...and my dads' liquor cabinet is locked, anyway, so we can't get into it regardless. But we don't need to be tipsy to have fun...'_

_'I can take care of that lock problem for you, my favourite Jewish American Princess,' Puck said, smirking, 'Just point me in the right direction.' _

_'Come on, Rachel,' Finn said, surprising most of the people within earshot, thinking he'd surely still be whipped by the pussy he never even got. 'You said you wanted to throw this party to live a little and experience life, right? How can you do that with drink tokens and a limit of 2 wine coolers per person? Learn to let go and live a little' he said. _

_His comments were echoed by shouts of 'here, here!' and 'Good leadership, Cap'n!'. _

_'I hate to say it, Berry, but Shamu here is right,' Santana said. 'This party sucks, and if we can't get our drink on here, we're leaving. There's a party down the street at Sarah DiMarcos house.'_

_Santana was really only referring to herself and Brittany, but her words were meant with a general grumble of approval of just about everyone in earshot. Which was everyone. Because there was no music blasting from the stereo and no alcohol being consumed irresponsibly. _Oh well, _she thought, _in for a penny, in for a pound. And who cares, if it meant an actual fun party with alcohol_. She grabbed Brittany by the wrist and began to lead her to the stairs to leave, intending to be the leader of a mass exodus, like a drunken Mexican lesbian Moses, but before she could get to the stairs, Berry called out_

_'Wait! Stop!' she called as she trotted over to them. As she was trotting across the space of the substantial basement, Brittany whispered worriedly to to Santana, 'San, we can't go to that party...we can't trash Mrs DiMarcos basement again...' _

_'Trust me, Britt' Santana said, her eyes gleaming, her mouth set expectantly as Rachel made her way over to them. _

_'Wait, Santana, Brittany, Quinn...guys, please stay. It would mean so much to me. I've just...never been to one of these things, let alone hosted one before, I don't know what is the proper procedure or protocol is...' _

_'We could save this party yet, Rach,' Puck said, 'But in order for us to do that you gotta let me into your dads' liquor cabinet' Rachel looked at him, clearly anxious and unsure. 'I'll replace it all before they get home,' he said, which earned him a curt nod and a beckoning wave towards where her dads kept their alcohol. _

_'Don't you worry, Rachel,' Santana said, not even noticing that she had called Rachel Berry her first name, rather than her surname or one of her myriad self-proclaimed nicknames for the girl, 'Just sit back and relax and let Mama Santana show you how to party' she said with a snicker as she led Rachel away from the stairs and towards the stereo. _

_'Alright everybody,' Santana announced to the room at large. 'You're in luck, cos us cool kids are going to save this shin-dig from total epic failure. Puck,' she said making eye contact with one of the few people besides Brittany she considered a friend, 'after you're done with that liqour cabinet, you and your fake ID on on a beer run. Q, Boy Chang,' she said, looking towards where Mike was standing with Tina, Artie and Quinn, 'You're the only people here besides Britt and I who are remotely popular and have friends who would go to parties in the first place. Get the word out to your friends that this is the underground party to be at tonight. Girl Chang and Wheels, get to work on a playlist,' she added to Tina and Artie. 'In the meantime, plug this in, track 12,' she said tossing Artie her iPod, which he plugged in and pressed play on track 12, and 'Party Rockin' by LMFAO started playing, and they cranked the volume as high as it would go. _

_'LETS PARTYYYYYYYY!' Brittany shrieked at the top of her lungs, grabbing two wine coolers and opening the bottles on her bottle-opener-belt-buckle she had worn especially tonight for just such an occasion. _

_45 minutes and a beer run using Puck's fake ID later, the party was starting to not completely suck. Santana was at that point in the night where she had a good, pleasant buzzing drunk going on without being too emotional, and Brittany was drunk enough to have shed her shirt and was currently dancing in nothing but her skirt and bra, and strangely, a thin, black neck-tie she had taken from Mike Chang at some point. Very few non-Glee people responded to any of the cooler Glee members' texts, the few that did came, saw that it wasn't what they expected at all, and promptly left. However, not that good music and lots of alcohol was finally involved, none of the glee kids seemed to care that they were the only ones there (not counting Blaine, but he was there with Kurt so he kind of counted, even if he was a Warbler), and some of them – the ones who usually got picked on by the cooler glee kids' other friends, especially – actually preferred it being just them. _

_Not long thereafter, Brittany stopped dancing, much to Santana's disappointment as she was enjoying watching her secret-girlfriend dance secretly-for-her. However, before she could pout even slightly, Brittany, flushed from the exertion and the alcohol, linked their pinkies, dragged her over to the drinks table, grabbed some salt, chopped up limes and a bottle of tequila and yelled, _

_'LETS DO BODY SHOTS' _

_This was a great idea, Santana thought. An excuse to lick salt and tequila from off of Brittany's body – especially a particularly sensistive and lesser known erogenous zone on her body – in front of everyone in a completely socially acceptable way? She thanked every diety she could think of for inventing body shots. And she took five body shots in quick succession, just so that she could have an excuse to keep running her tongue all over Brittany's stomach and navel; even if, for now, that purpose to everyone who wasn't Brittany was ostensibly to lick up salt and tequila. Santana then lay down across the table, ripping open her own shirt, so that Brittany could do the same off of her body, to a chorus of screams and cheering and cat calls. Afterwards, Santana got up and Brittany immediately grabbed Santana by the hand and dragged her to a sofa in the far corner of the basement, saying as she dragged her along, _

_'C'mon, Santana, let's make out,' loud enough for it not be a secret if anyone were listening in, and then much quieter 'You're so fucking hot right now, I can't keep my hands off you' _

_'Brittany...' Santana said in quiet protest, or tried to, as the blonde pushed her down onto the sofa and immediately sat on her lap and began attacking her neck with kisses. _

_'What, we _always_ make out at parties, Santana,' she said, 'Don't you want to make out with me and make all the boys jealous?' loudly enough to be heard. It was then she realised that her sexy, smart little sex-kitten of a girlfriend was, indeed, a genius. She had found a way for them to both do what they wanted to do, that being drunkenly get their mack on, whilst also not make anyone suspicious through her brilliant play-acting performance. Under her breath so only Santana could hear, she added, 'Because we always do make out at parties when we get shit-faced, we have Presidents' _

_'I think you mean precedence,' Santana gasped under Brittany's almost-over-zealous ministrations, before giving in full-force to her genius idea. They had been going at it for about 10 minutes before Quinn came over and stood in front of the sofa, saying, _

_'Do you guys have to make out with each other at literally _every _party? I mean its not like there are even any cute guys here you need to make jealous, because I think between the two of you you've already slept with all of the guys here,' she said, with a completely straight face, as she drank something brightly coloured from a red solo cup. _

_'Aww, don't be jealous Q,' Brittany said. 'Here, you can join us if you want,' she said, starting to reach for Quinn's free hand, before Santana slapped her reaching hand away, saying, _

_'No, she can't', as she looked meaningfully at Brittany, showing only the slightest hint of 'breaking character', but enough for her girlfriend to get the message and nod in acquiescence almost imperceptibly._

_'You know what, that's ok, I'll be alright, but thanks for the offer, B,' Quinn said, laughing at her friends' antics._

_'Suit yourself, Q,' she said. 'You don't know what you're missing' _

_'I'm good. Thanks though, Britt'_

_'What are friends for?' _

_Quinn walked away with laughter in her eyes and shaking her head at the antics of her friends. If there was one thing she could count on, it was for those two girls to be sucking face with each other as much, if not more so than with the guys, at every party they went to. _

_The most surprising thing about that entire exchange was that nobody else on the team seemed to notice them. Like, at all. Not even so much as a raised eyebrow came from anyone on glee club as the two girls made out in the corner. Not that many of them were paying much attention anyway, as Berry was in almost literal hysterics, due to the utter level of sloppy-drunk she was. Soon, Brittany and Santana broke away, sensing that the timing was no longer right: now that they were officially together, even if it was a secret for the time being, making out with each other at a party and pretending it was just because they were best friends and they _always _made out when they got drunk no longer felt wrong. In fact, it felt kind of...wrong. To Santana – and Brittany, too, though neither of the girls would tell the other for many years – it felt like it was, not cheating, exactly, but certainly decidedly dishonest. It was like taking something pure, and lovely, and good, and right, and perfect, something like the love she had for her girlfriend, and replacing it with some cheap knock off, a cruel, silly attempt not even coming close to the real thing, and calling it the same thing. It felt like she was intruding on, and cheapening, her own good thing by carrying on with this sort of behaviour, and both girls quickly decided they'd much rather just socialise and be close with each other in other ways, and save the physical stuff for sweet lady kisses when they were behind closed doors. For much of the night, they circled around the room, talking to all the other guests in turn, drinking a variety of drinks from red solo cups; whenever one would go to refill her drink, she would always return with some new and interesting drink for her girlfriend as well. Santana especially loved it when Brittany made her drinks, because she always came up with some of the most quirky combinations that, whilst she would have never even considered putting together on her own, most actually tasted quite delicious. And without Brittany's eccentric thought process that would put certain combinations together, such as Blue __Curaçao __and Diet Coke, because it was the colour of both of their eyes, she would have never have found some pretty amazing new drinks. It was just another reason why she loved this girl so much. When they made their rounds, they even spoke to Artie, briefly, and Brittany managed to even make Santana be nice and interact with him as a person, rather than as 'Wheels, the boy who kept us apart'. Santana had to admit, now that she knew that she and Brittany were a _thing _and she knew the wheel-bound kid was no longer a threat to hers and Brittany's happiness, she found he was actually not too bad of a person. He was actually kind of interesting and had some hobbies and interests outside of the glee club, which automatically bumped him up in her book. __ Sure, he was still a huge nerd, but, she was starting to come to terms with the fact that, deep down, so was she. Of course, she would never admit it out loud to anyone, perhaps maybe Brittany, and she was still Co-Head Cheerio, and a popular girl, and the baddest bitch at McKinley High, but dammit if she didn't admit she was starting to feel something for these lovable losers and their stupid little club. Their stupid little club that gave her an outlet, gave her a way to express herself when she didn't know how otherwise; their stupid little club that taught her how to express her deepest, most hidden feelings that she could never say with words, through music. And, whilst she would be hard-pressed to admit it to anyone, she would always have a soft-spot for them because of it. Of course, that may have just been the alcohol talking, she thought. Even though, as the saying went, _in vino veritas _she was far too drunk to be able to dwell much on these thoughts. Especially because Brittany was pulling her back to the sofa again. Not to make out this time, as before, but because there was a group of their friends (yes, she'd admit that some of the glee kids were in fact, her friends – after all, besides Brittany real, proper friends was one of the things she wanted most – but she would never admit either of these things to them yet) congregating around the sofa. When they got to the sofa, Brittany gave Santana a light push to encourage her to sit, after which she promptly plopped herself down right next to her, resting her feet in Santana's lap. At some point during the conversation they were having with Puck and Mike about things not related to glee, Santana noticed Brittany slowly and quietly try to thread their fingers of their hands that were facing in, towards the sofa, together. When Brittany saw that Santana had noticed, her demeanour changed and she suddenly became shy and nervous, though it was noticeable only to Santana, and it was absolutely adorable. Santana nodded imperceptibly that it was okay, and Brittany's smile brightened as their fingers laced together. If Puck and Mike noticed, they showed no outward signs of recognition of what was going on, and they carried on with their conversation about how glee club really was dominated by too much broadway and bubblegum pop, and maybe they could find a way to convince Mr Shue to let them do a song that was actually a rock song every once in a while, perhaps even on the set list for their next competition, as if nothing had happened. Santana knew she had a soft spot for Boy Chang and Puck for a reason. _

_'I mean, seriously,' Puck was saying, 'why the hell are only doing top 40 chart hack songs and broadway? Do I look like a give a shit about broadway?' he added meaningfully, gesturing to his mohawk. _

_'I would pay good money to see you on Broadway, Puck,' Brittany said earnestly, and they all laughed. Santana liked that, at least some of them, could freely joke and laugh like this, at least sometimes. She also knew, that despite what Boy Chang and Puck may have thought, Brittany was dead serious; she respected the misunderstood bad boy immensely, for dealing so well with the particular hand life had dealt him (Santana did too, and secretly wished she could handle herself as well as Puck did, even when they were 'dating' she had respected the kid immensely), but she also thought he was a very talented musician who could, if he so wanted, make it big on Broadway. She also told Santana once that she thought it would be hilarious to see Puck, mohawk and all, cast in one of those stuffy Broadway plays, just to see the reaction he would get. Santana definitely agreed._

_'Don't get your hopes up Brittany,' he said. 'I only joined this stupid singing club cos I thought I could rock out with my guitar, and as times gone on it seems like I've been doing less and less rocking out lately. Besides,' he added, 'the pool cleaning business is too good to me; it pays well, and I'm all about that Cougar Strange' he said, winking knowingly. Mike snorted at Puck's last comment. _

_'Seriously, though, why do we have to do all these stupid broadway show songs all the time? Why can't we bring something nobody else is bringing to Nationals, like some Led Zeppelin or AC/DC or something? I could totally rock out on guitar, and Finn would kill it on the drums, and its not like they're impossible to dance to or anything – and I'm sure between Brittany and Mike the two of you would lay down some killer dance moves, and we'd absolutely kill it' Puck said, animatedly. _

_'Tell us how you really feel,' Mike said. _

_'Yeah, what is the infamous Noah Puckerman getting a soft spot for the glee club?' Santana asked, though she herself certainly agreed and smiled broadly the whole time she was goading him as she saw how broadly Brittany smiled under his praise. _

_'Oh fuck off, both of you,' he muttered, mock-angrily. _

_'But seriously, though, I definitely agree,' Santana said, with Mike and Brittany nodding their heads vigorously. _

_'We could talk to Mr Shue about it next class?' Mike suggested. _

_'Or, we could just show him...otherwise he might tell us no, after all he wouldn't want to upset precious Man Hands, would he?' Santana said. _

_'You may be onto something there, Lopez,' Puck said, 'Why don't we...' _

_They never found out what he was going to suggest, because Berry and Kurt's new boy-toy, Blaine, decided to use that moment to put on an impromptu show, singing a duet of a modern, top-40 hit, but that still had a bit of a 'rock n roll' feel to it. Santana liked the song, but couldn't for the life of her remember the name of it. Blaine was actually very good, and despite not knowing him very well, she had to begrudgingly give him credit where credit was due, he could belt out some sweet ear candy. Berry, on the other hand, well, not so much. Perhaps, there was a reason, Santana thought, that she stuck to Broadway classics. Whilst her technical skills were fine, and she was never pitchy or flat, she just couldn't sing these kinds of songs. Rachel "Man Hands" Berry couldn't handle the emotion, the power, the pain in these sorts of songs. And this song was a relatively poppy, top-40 type song. Santana could only wonder in horror at how she would butcher some of the more emotional, soulful songs that she would love if glee club could have tackled. She didn't know if it was a chicken or the egg sort of thing, or if it was because her two dads had sheltered her in a home that couldn't be more stereotypically middle class, suburban, gay yuppie, but she didn't have the life experience to be able to deal with the emotions needed to sing any kind of real music. It was like she really WAS a 75 year old Jewish lady, rather than simply idolising one. The only difference being that at least most 75 year old Jewish ladies have had enough life experience to sing emotions into their music. Unlike Berry. Santana of course wondered how she was able to handle the emotion of the rare Broadway piece that actually had emotion, but thought better of it, realising that for all her faults, Rachel Berry certainly had a flair for the dramatic, and was probably able to manage the emotion in those pieces through acting. But singing a song that required real emotion that wasn't part of a wider story arc...that was a different story. And it was something that Rachel Berry couldn't do. But Santana knew that SHE could, if only Mr Shue would give her the chance. _

_Eventually, they finished hamming it up, and stood for varying degrees of applause: a lot for Blaine, and enough to be respectful, for Rachel. _

_Under her breath, Santana said to Puck and the others, _

_'That's why we haven't done real music in a long time. Shuester knows Rachel can't handle it, and he can't handle the nuclear melt-down that would follow.' They all nodded knowingly in agreement, if nervously. Before the conversation was able to go any further, they were interrupted yet again, this time by Rachel drunkenly screaming, at the top of her little lungs, 'LET'S PLAY SPIN THE BOTTLE!' _

_When they refused to move from their conversations, Man Hands yelled again, louder and more persistently. She clearly wasn't taking no for an answer. Slowly all the glee kids, including Puck and Boy Chang were making there way over to the now forming circle. _

_'Come on, San, let's go play,' Brittany said, surprisingly excited. 'Maybe I'll land on you!' _

_'What if you don't?' Santana asked quietly, before she allowed herself to be moved. _

_'Aww, you're so cute when you're jealous, Baby,' she said quietly. 'Don't worry, you know I'd only be kissing them because its the rules and you have to follow the rules if you play a game. All my real sweet lady kisses are reserved for you,' she added, smiling, as she pulled Santana up from the sofa and towards the circle of their friends. _

_'You go ahead and play, Britt, but I don't think I want to, I think I'll just watch for now,' Santana said quietly. _

_'Are you sure? I won't play if you don't want me to, I'll make up some excuse, I'll...'_

_'No, no, Britt, don't worry about it,' Santana said light-heartedly, and surprising herself by actually meaning it, her eyes smiling. She knew Brittany was hers, and she was Brittany's, and their real kisses were only for each other. She just had no desire to randomly kiss strangers, drunk at a party, or not. 'You go have fun, I'll watch from the bar. I need to get some water anyway, and sober up so we can go home soon, anyway,' she said, smiling and covertly grabbing Brittany's ass. _

_After a few spins, Artie's turn landed pointed directly at Britt, and Santana was surprised how quickly her jealousy reared its ugly head. She didn't care if Brittany kissed anyone else in this silly game, because she knew she would be the one she would go home with tonight, but it was different with Artie because, despite the reasons behind everything – or perhaps even because of it – and even though it was over now and didn't last long, he and Brittany _had _dated, and they _had _slept together. Even if it was just to make her jealous. Well, score one to Brittany on that point, because it fucking worked. A few seconds after they touched lips, Santana was on her feet. _

_'Okay, okay. Okay, babies,' she said, saying the last word as a question like she was addressing both of them, even if she only really cared about Brittany, 'you two JUST broke up,' she continued, carrying on the charade for the benefit of everyone else. Only Britt knew the truth, but that was okay, because at the moment, she was the only one who mattered or who deserved to. 'You two literally JUST broke up,' she continued, tapping them both on their shoulders, 'that's enough of that. Not healthy,' she added, so she didn't look like a total bitch. She was happy when both Artie and Brittany broke away almost immediately at her words, and Artie even smiled at her, almost as if he were thanking her. _That's really weird_ she thought to herself. _Poor guy. If this was with anyone but Brittany, I'd feel bad for the Crip. _But of course, because Brittany was involved, she didn't. They both went back to their positions, and luckily Brittany didn't get landed on by anyone else for quite a while, to Santana's and Brittany's mutual secret pleasure. Then, about an hour later, the game surprisingly still going strong, after the scandalous kiss between the supposedly very-much-homosexual Blaine and an extremely drunk Rachel Berry. Santana was grabbing herself another bottle of water from behind Berry's dads' wetbar when Sam took his turn and his spin landed on Brittany. They went together quickly and chastely, and Santana thought that that would be the end of that rather fast, as she chugged down half the water bottle, hoping to sober up enough to drive home soon so she and Brittany could engage in some more amorous activities in privacy. But she did not expect to see Trouty-Mouth Fish-Face deepening the kiss, grabbing hold of the back of her girlfriend's neck and running his fingers through her blonde hair, trying to deepen the kiss and gain access with his tongue. For her part, Brittany was letting him go this far, but no further, which was a feat for her, considering how drunk she was and how amorous she tended to be when she was as drunk as she was. Santana at least recognised the tell-tale signs of Brittany trying her best to keep kissing him, because after all, those were the rules as she had told Santana earlier, whilst denying his tongue entry, but he seemed to be quite persistent, and Santana didn't know how much longer Brittany would be able to hold him at bay. And she didn't want to find out. _

_She was seeing red. Blinding, white-hot rage that came from the very pit of her stomach and strangely made her tingle with jealousy in her lower regions took control of her body and she wasn't even able to see straight, let alone thing clearly or logically about any, let alone all, the consequences of whatever action she was about to take. All she knew was that Fish Face was trying to shove his tongue down her girlfriend's throat, which neither she nor her girlfriend wanted, and she had to do something. What happened next was wholly and completely a result of passion and anger, and she would later say for a long time afterwards that she didn't even remember doing it, even though she did, however vaguely. _

_'GET OFF MY GIRLFRIEND!' she yelled, rushing forwards and grabbing Brittany away from the creepy ministrations of Fish Face. After briefly checking with Brittany to make sure she was okay, she grabbed her girlfriend, by the hand, and led her to the stairs, shouting, 'COME ON, BRITT, WE'RE LEAVING' _

_As she hurriedly approached, and then climbed, the stairs, Brittany trailing behind her, Brittany waved brightly to all her friends looking at them, trying to hide their shock at what must have been the most unintentional coming-out ever. As she waved happily behind her to their friends, she called out 'we had a really lovely time, Rachel!' before climbing up the stairs with Santana, a huge smile plastered all over her face. She was smiling ear-to-ear the entire drive home, happier than she ever thought she could be from something as simple as hearing Santana call her her girlfriend out loud. Even if it was at a party, and they were drunk, and she was clearly angry and a bit jealous. Which made it all the cuter, to her. _

Back at Rachel's, the room was eerily quiet until Mercedes decided to break the uncomfortable silence.

'So...are we going talk about this or...' she left the question hanging in the air.

'No, we aren't,' said Kurt, firmly.

'But...' someone else, probably Rachel, said.

'No. They'll tell us when they're ready. In the meantime, we respect their privacy and understand that this is a highly personal decision that no one can make for them. They'll tell us in their own time, when they're ready. Unless or until that happens, this didn't happen.' Kurt said, in an uncharacteristically forceful way, in a voice that would brook no argument. The matter dropped, the rest of the glee kids carried on with the party.

After Brittany and Santana had come up for air after, after a long time exploring each others' bodies with their lips, they sat up against Santana's headboard, cuddling together. This time neither of them were the big spoon or the little spoon, as they simply folded themselves around the other in a way in which their bodies just seemed to fit together perfectly. They sat there, quietly just taking comfort from each others' presences, Santana brushing Brittany's golden hair behind her ear and Brittany absent-mindedly caressing Santana's exposed skin, taking in the warmth, comfort, and trust they felt from each others' presence. After some time, Santana spoke.

'I'm sorry Brittany'

'What for, Honey?'

'For you know...acting all crazy psycho bitch earlier. I know you didn't mean anything when Trouty was kissing you, and I saw you trying to ease him back, but I just...I don't know what happened, and I'm sorry'

'Santana, listen to me,' Brittany said, adjusting her posture so she could look into her girlfriend's eyes. 'Don't apologise. Please. I shouldn't have even been playing in the first place. I mean, what was I thinking, playing a game where the entire point is kissing random strangers, right in front of my girlfriend? I'm honestly surprised you kept your cool as long as you did. I know I wouldn't have been able to. I seriously have no idea what had gotten into me, except that I was really drunk, and wanted to kiss, and I didn't think kissing you was an option given the situation and...,' she sighed heavily before continuing. 'Its not an excuse, and nor should it be, and even if it were it would be a shitty one, as that's no excuse to kiss other people right in front of your girlfriend, but I hope that you can forgive me and...' she said, rambling cutely, 'I'm just very sorry, San.'

'Aww, Baby,' Santana cooed. 'I forgive you. I will always forgive you. Just promise me that we won't let that happen again.' She held out her pinky. Brittany linked her pinky in Santana's.

'Promise.'

'I just...I just hope that they don't spread this around school, Britt. I'm not ready to come out, not like this, I wanted it to be on our own terms...'

Brittany was worried by her girlfriends sudden worry and lack of calm. She was worried that she was beginning to see the walls she had so carefully and with such difficulty managed to help Santana tear down go back up, and she couldn't allow that to happen.

'Santana,' she said, cupping her girlfriend's face and looking directly into her eyes. 'I know we wanted to do this on our own terms, but if it happens this way, there won't be anything we can do about it now. My time machine doesn't work yet. If it happens, it happens. Remember? Remember what we promised each other? No backsliding. We are not ashamed of each other, or what we have, or who and what we are. No more hiding, no more lies, no more secrets. If we're outed, we stay out. Out and Proud. You're mine, proudly so, and I'm yours, proudly so. Remember? You promised.' She said. She knew she was repeating herself, almost to the point of beating a dead whore (she never really understood that reference, but she'd have Santana explain it later), but she needed Santana to understand where she was coming from. She needed Santana to understand that she couldn't go backwards, not anymore, not after all they've managed to work through. For her part, Santana seemed to understand. She always seemed to understand Brittany, and that was one of so many reasons why Brittany loved her Mexican girl so much.

Santana nodded her understanding, if a bit sadly. Brittany didn't like Santana's reticence and hesitation when it came to coming out publicly for their relationship, but she understood it. Santana was terrified of what might happen, both for her own self, but also for Brittany, and that made Brittany sad even more, because try as she might, the one thing Brittany couldn't protect Santana from was herself, her own demons. Santana was the bravest, most special, most magical unicorn of them all, and the fact that she was afraid to show everyone, for reasons she hadn't even fully explained to Brittany, scared her, because if it scared Santana, it must be scary indeed. But she swore to herself right then and there, that no matter what happened, no matter where they were, and what had happened from that point on, she vowed she would make sure she made sure her Santana knew just how special she was, each and every single day from now until forever. She sighed.

'That said, Santana, they're our friends. I don't think anyone there would do anything or say anything to out us before we were ready. Some of them might be clueless, but they aren't cruel.'

'You're probably right,' Santana said, sighing contedly, as she leaned back into her girlfriend's body, again seeking comfort from her mere presence. 'How'd you get so smart?' she asked playfully.

'Duh, I'm a genius.'

'I know you are. I love you.' Santana said. After a few moments of comfortable silence, Santana said 'Thank you, Brittany'

'What for?'

'For everything.'

Brittany smiled happily as she leaned into her girlfriend and they kissed tenderly for a moment. For a while neither of them spoke, they didn't need to. What they hadn't already said with words, their kiss said for them.

Eventually, Brittany got up from their position to use the toilet and brush her teeth before they decided to actually go to sleep, and when she was in the toilet, Santana received a text from Puck.

**Gr8 party huh? Still on 4 rock 4 shue w me, finn and chang? I'm thinking patty smith, gloria or else layla by clapton. Could both have male and fem singers. Talk to B, I'll talk to F and Chang. **

Occasionally, when she let herself admit it, she had some pretty great friends.


	4. Just some silly love songs

**Author's Note: Ok just a few quick notes before the chapter starts. This will be a bit long, I apologise, but please bear with me, the rest of my AN's will be nowhere near this long. First, obviously I don't own Glee or anything else in here that are in any way famous (including the two movies I mention in this chapter – Rango, which I've never seen but looked up under 'films released Spring 2011 as in my timeline this would be taking place roughly early spring 2011 and I try to be as dilligent and accurate as possible' and the other, Waltz with Bashir, which I have seen multiple times; its a brilliant Israeli film about a few soldiers coming to terms with what they did in Lebanon and their PTSD, I highly recommend it). They all belong to their respective owners. I'm just playing around with the characters/universe they created. **

**Second, English is not my native language (we speak Hebrew and Spanish at home) and I learned Queen's (British) English at school, but I try to keep everything 'in character' so I'm trying to use American terms which I am not very familiar with, so if I'm using them wrong, please tell me. (Like I'm pretty sure Americans say pants instead of trousers, movie theatre instead of cinema, etc) **

**Finally, I know in the show in S02, Kurt is at Dalton Academy but...I needed him at McKinley, and I really didn't want to write a whole chapter or whatever about why he comes back to McKinley so early, bla bla bla...let's just pretend that he doesn't like it there or something and comes back, so when this is taking back he's already back at McKinley. **

**Also, in case anyone is wondering: 1. I did not realise until after I published this story that the story title is the same as one of the last episodes of the last series (Season in American English, I think?) of the show. It just happened that way. I hope that this will grow to develop into how things would be different if they got together officially sooner, but I'm still trying to use a lot of major anchor points from the show/etc, so we'll see how it works out. I'm used to writing things with a large, over-arching pre-planned plot arch/story line and this one...I'm just letting the characters live, really, and see what happens. **

**My chapters tend to be long (as this one is) as I try to be as detailed in my story-telling as possible, which is why sometimes updates may be infrequent, as I'd rather take the time to write longer, more in-depth chapters than just speed through and provide crap. But I do have quite a few major ideas/chapters/plot points already planned out, so at least in the beginning it won't be too bad as I'll at least know where this is going in the immediate future. **

**Sorry for the long author's note. Usually they are short and sweet, but because people are actually reading this, apparently, and its not just for myself, I figure I should give a little explanation of the method behind the madness. **

After the excitement of coming out to Brittany's parents, and the clusterfuck that was the party at Rachel's, both girls were happy that the next few weeks went by more or less uneventfully, the highlight of the week being Brittany's improving Spanish grades, thanks to some rather intensive tutoring on the part of one Santana Lopez.

One day a few weeks after the aforementioned excitement, Santana was buried, head-first in her locker looking for her History books, when Brittany silently sidled up to her locker, stopping on the other side of the open locker door, unaware that Santana didn't know she was there. She held her binders and other materials clung close to her chest.

'Hi,' she said, making Santana jump in surprise, hitting her head the roof of her locker. Santana rubbed her head meaningfully as she closed her locker door enough to look at Brittany. When she saw that Santana was hurt, however slightly, Brittany's blue eyes radiated concern.

'I'm sorry, Santana,' she said. 'I didn't mean to hurt you are you okay?' she asked, perhaps more worried than she should have necessarily been.

'I'm fine, Britt,' Santana said. 'You just surprised me is all. I didn't see you there, and I didn't hear you and then BAM – you just surprised me, is all. What's up?' she asked, turning to better converse with the blonde girl.

'I got you something,' Brittany said, handing over a piece of white construction paper. On it was a hand-drawn picture of Brittany's overweight cat, Lord Tubbington holding and eating what looked like a giant candy heart, with a message written in crayon – with each letter a different colour – underneath the picture that read, _Lord Tubbington thinks you're purrrrrrrfect and so do I_.

'Aww, Baby,' Santana said, so pleased at the gift that she forgot to discretely lower her voice when using one of her girlfriend-pet-names for Brittany. _Its a crowded hallways anyway, probably nobody would be able to hear anyway_, she thought to herself afterwards, when she realised this fact. 'What's this for?' she asked Brittany, as she took the picture and immediately hung it in her locker. Brittany walked to the other side of Santana's locker, to admire her artwork as it hung in pride of place. After she was satisfied, she discretely took Santana's hand and gave it a squeeze before lowering their hands to a position where they would not be seen by passers-by, but were still holding hands.

'Do I need to have a reason?' Brittany asked Santana seriously. After all, maybe the rules were different now and nobody had thought to tell her. And she didn't want that, after all.

'No, of course not,' Santana said, cutting off the sense of worry that was starting to show on Brittany's face. 'Its just, if there was a special reason, I'd want to know.'

'Oh, okay,' Brittany said, smiling and nodding before she continued. 'No, no special reason. I just...I know how hard its been these past few months, for you. For both of us, but for you especially, given...well, you know...everything that's happened, or that hasn't happened, and all that. And, I just thought that I wanted to give you something to show you how much I care about you, and how much I appreciate you, and everything you're doing for us to be together,' she said seriously.

Santana really wanted to kiss her, right then and there, to show Brittany how much she cared about how her and how much she appreciated how patient she was being. Santana wanted to kiss her so much that she almost didn't care what people at school would think if she just placed a big kiss on her girlfriend's lips, right there in the middle of the hallway. Just like any other couple should be able to do. Instead, she compromised with giving her girlfriend a watery smile and, after looking in all directions to make sure no one was paying any attention to them, quickly brought their intertwined fingers up to her mouth to plant a light kiss on them, hoping that that would be just as demonstrative and that Brittany would understand her intent. Afterwards, she released the fingers of Brittany's hand, so that she could grab the books she had been looking for in the first place and place them in her book bag so they wouldn't have to stop back at their lockers between lunch and history.

As the girls began walking to their next class, Brittany said to Santana,

'So, I was thinking about our date tonight...'

Santana's eyes went wide in shock at her brazenness, desperately looking around to make sure they hadn't been overheard.

'Do you want people to hear you, Brittany?' she asked, worried.

'Well, I wouldn't be afraid if they did,' Brittany said, pointedly, before plastering an impish smirk on her face and continuing, 'but don't worry, Babe, nobody is paying any attention to us or our conversation.'

After a quick look around to confirm what her girlfriend was saying was true, Santana replied,

'You really are so smart. I don't see how nobody else sees that'

'They're all threatened by my genius,' Brittany deadpanned.

'Clearly,' Santana replied, giggling. Which was something that Santana Lopez, as a general rule, did not do within the walls of William McKinley High School. 'You were saying?'

'Oh, yeah, that's right. Like I was saying, about our date tonight. I know you wanted to just pick up some Breadstix to go and cuddle and watch Sweet Valley High, but I was thinking...'

'I'm all ears, Britt, lay it on me,' Santana said, and then immediately regretted her word choice because Brittany looked at her like she sprouted a second head until she realised that Santana wasn't, in fact, all ears and it was just an expression. Shaking herself out of her reverie, Brittany continued,

'Right, well, I was thinking that instead of that, we can go to see a movie in the theatre...sit in the back of a dark theatre...and see how much of the movie we actually watch before we start _not_ watching the movie...?' she suggested hopefully, with an ever-so-slight huskiness in her voice that Santana recognised well and knew meant a very fun evening was in store for both of them. Still, not wanting to appear too easy or too eager, Santana decided to at least make a show of being put out. She huffed,

'But Britt, I had this all planned out,' she pouted, which was again something that Santana most assuredly did not do outside private conversations with her girlfriend behind closed doors. 'What's wrong with a nice, quiet night in at my place...?'

Brittany frowned. She didn't want Santana to be sad.

'Oh, Honey,' she said, locking her pinky with Santana's, 'I didn't mean to put you out, I didn't know you had anything particular planned, I don't want to...' she began, only to be cut off by a bark of laughter from Santana.

'Its totally fine, Britt,' she said, her eyes laughing. 'I totally didn't have anything more elaborate than picking up some Breadstix and choosing a few episodes of Sweet Valley High on DVD to watch. I just didn't want to seem too...easy,' she said, lowering her voice and waggling her eyes suggestively at the last part of her sentence, smirking cheekily.

'You bitch!' Brittany gasped dramatically, pretending to be offended, as she slapped Santana's arm playfully. 'Well, what do you say then? A movie in a dark theatre? Pick me up around 7?' she continued just as they got to their next class.

'That sounds fine with me,' Santana said, as they entered the chemistry classroom and sat at their customary seats in the back, next to each other. God they hated chemistry. Which was ironic, because they had such good chemistry themselves. 'I'll pick you up at 7,' Santana confirmed, as she dug out her chemistry book and both her and Brittany's lab notebooks and the notes from yesterdays experiment.

'Well, hello there, William,' Sue said in her very particular 'needling-Will-Shuester' voice. 'How was Burning Man this year? Probably pretty amazing, I'd bet,' she said, smirking.

'What are you talking about, Sue?' Will asked tiredly.

'Well, I just assumed that based on the fact you have enough grease in your hair to light an effigy on fire and you've neglected the actual teaching job that you are paid to supposedly teach at this school even more than usual, that you must have just returned from the world's most famous drug festival in the desert,' she said in her best cheerful-but-insulting voice.

'Whatever, Sue. Look, I'm actually kind of busy right now, so if you just came here to get some jabs in can it wait?' Mr Shue said, tiredly, returning to his grading.

'Oh, sure, whatever you say, buddy,' Sue said, surprising even her self with how cheerful she was. 'Just as soon as you answer me this riddle'

Will just looked up at her, waiting for the obvious barb she was going to throw in his face.

'Riddle me this, William: What's got six hands and six feet and tracks multicoloured footprints into my locker room almost every day?'

'I don't know, Sue, what?'

'My three Cheerios that for some reason seem to want to be a part of your trainwreck of a glee club!' she nearly shouted. 'Look, I don't care what you and those kids in your so-called glee club do, mostly because I don't know what you're supposed to do in a glee club, and even less what you people actually wind up doing. Probably something to do with rainbows and wasting funds this school doesn't have. I even let my Cheerios join, because frankly, between you and me a little extra cardio in the way of dancing could only help Queen Bee and Sandbags, but I have only one rule: it doesn't affect their school performance or Cheerios, and the fact that they're being slushied and tracking that filth into my locker room almost every day is starting to affect my team dynamic! Fix it, William, or I will fix it for you!' She added, before storming off, shoving one of the random kids who had the misfortune to be in her way as she made her way down the hall.

Will Shuester just watched her leave, wondering how the hell he was going to, as she put it 'fix it', short of telling the girls – which he knew he couldn't do, and if he didn't, what exactly Sue was going to do as repercussions. He was woken from his reverie, however, by the bell, signalling the end of lunch and that he had only three more periods to teach until the end of the day, and the last glee club meeting and rehearsal of the week.

At the end of the day, Santana and Brittany were sitting in their usual spots in the back row of the choir room as they waited for glee rehearsal to start. They were playing a game of tic-tac-toe drawn with marker pen on Brittany's knee, not really paying attention to the dull murmur of everyone else around them as they waited for Mr Shue to enter the choir room, because he was late. As usual.

Brittany watched Santana intently as she studied the game board drawn on her own leg. Her brow was furrowed in thought and the tip of her tongue stuck out between her lips and curled up and wrapped around the left side of her upper lip. It was her 'thinking face'. Or her 'strategising face'. Or her 'concentrating' face. At least, that's what Brittany called them – mostly in her head, but sometimes to Santana's face as well when it was too cute not too, and her protestations about such nicknames just made it all the cuter – and she loved how she was able to know that. She loved how she was able to know Santana so well, even before their friendship turned into something so much more, which was something she still couldn't pinpoint the exact time when one became the other – probably because even though now they were so much more than just best friends, they were still best friends as well, she thought. At least, that theory made sense to her, so that was what she was going with. She loved how she was able to know this amazing girl so well, that she knew what the various faces she pulled meant for her various mental states. She loved how her eyes crinkled at the sides when she was smiling one of her true, private smiles that seemed to be reserved only for her. She loved how when she was deep in thought – as she was now – her brow would furrow and push her eyebrows together and a tiny bit of her tongue would stick out between her lips and sometimes curl upwards and wrap around her upper lip like it was currently doing. She loved how, no matter what emotion her girlfriend was feeling, even at school when she put her emotionless mask on and hid behind walls of snark and sarcasm, that she always had a tell that betrayed her true feelings about things, which meant that she, Brittany S Pierce, would almost always be able to read the Latina girl like a book. A trait which had always enabled them to be close on a level most people wouldn't understand. _Of course the fact that she looked so damn cute like that didn't hurt either _she thought to herself. She even loved her bad traits – she especially loved her bad traits – they made her more human, less perfect for her, even more easy to love than she already was. She loved that sometimes Santana would be unpredictable, and snarky, and had the temper that earned her the nickname Satan with good reason. She loved that even though there were times when she was furious with Santana and the Latina would make her cry more tears than she would ever admit, she also knew that the only person who could ever make her feel better when she was sad, or angry, or hurting, or lonely – even if the person who made her feel that way in the first place was Santana – was Santana. She loved that she knew that her Latina girl felt the exact same way about her.

Brittany was broken from her reverie when Santana made her move, placing her X in in the bottom right corner, completing a three-in-a-row, winning the game, and destroying Brittany's long-held winning streak and status as tic-tac-toe champion for life.

'Ha! I win!' she crowed triumphantly

'What? No, lemme see!' Brittany said, examining the game, even though she knew she had lost already. Her concentration was certainly not on the game, and that was why she lost. If she had been paying attention to beating Santana, rather than how cute she looked when she was concentrating, her girlfriend never would have won. 'Damn,' she said quietly. 'I guess even the champion has to lose eventually,' she said, doffing an imaginary cap to the victor, who barely heard or saw her, as she was already up and out of her seat doing her 'Happy/I-beat-Brittany-at-tic-tac-toe' dance.

'Uh-huh, you lose. I win. You lose. I win I win I win, you lose,' she was chanting, whilst gyrating her hips teasingly. 'I'm the winner, you're the loser, I won, you lost uh-huh uh-huh uh-huh'

It wasn't the most inventive of song and dance numbers, they would both admit, but they'd been using it pretty much since they day they met, and whilst they updated the dance slightly to be a bit more sexy as they grew older, they saw no reason to change something that had been part of them, and their past, with which they had so much history, simply because they were growing up.

Santana's dance was cut short, however, by the appearance of Mr Shue, who had just walked in

'Nice moves, Santana, maybe you could teach Mike and we can learn it at Booty Camp and maybe even bring it to Regionals,' he said, his eyes smiling, as he made his way to the centre of the classroom. Santana sat down hurriedly and tried to look as small as possible, with the tiniest hint of what Brittany knew was a blush creeping up her cheeks.

'Just so you know,' Brittany whispered in Santana's ear as they dutifully tried to ignore Rachel's annoying droning on about a Regional's set list, 'You may have won today, but that was only because I was distracted by how cute you look when you have your "concentrating" face on. If I had been focused on the game instead of you, I would still be the undefeated champion,' she added as Santana smirked at her and gave her a playful shove. Mr Shue's slightly irritated voice, directed at Rachel, brought them back to the present.

'...Yes, Rachel, I understand we need to prepare a set list. Believe it or not, I have done this before,' he told her, to which a few of the glee clubbers chuckled, 'But there are a few lessons I want to do first before we finalise anything. Just trust me, Rachel, we'll be fine and have everything taken care of with plenty of time to prepare,' he said happily, drawing a marker pen from his bag and beginning to head to the board at the back wall in the centre of the room.

'Um, Mr. Shue,' Puck said, before he made it to the board.

'Yes, Puck? Go ahead,' Mr Shue said, making his way back to the centre of the room to address the students before he got to the board.

'Well, a few of us wanted to perform something today before we got started with today's lesson,' he added, grabbing his guitar and beckoning Finn, Mike, Santana and Brittany up to the performance area before they got the official go-ahead from Shue.

'Alright, yeah, sure, guys. That's great, the floor is yours,' he said, sitting down in his usual chair, ready to watch the performance.

'Right, so, we were talking,' Puck began to say, indicating the performers who joined him 'on stage'. 'And frankly, we're kind of sick and tired of always doing either this bubblegum pop top-40 crap or Broadway shit,' he said, as a bit of a preamble.

'Language, Puck,' Mr Shue corrected, not unkindly.

'Sorry, right. But well, you get the idea. I mean, do I look like a Broadway kind of guy?' he asked, only half-rhetorically.

'I want to see your mohawk on Broadway, Puck,' Brittany said. 'You could even be attached to it,' she added dreamily, as most of the class chuckled nervously and Santana, Mike and Puck smiled at her warmly.

'Right, be that as it may,' Puck said, recovering, 'I joined this glee club to rock my face off with some awesome guitar skills, and lately, there's been a distinct lack of rocking out,' he said, Santana, Brittany, Finn and Mike nodding in earnest agreement.

'So we decided to show you that we can both rock out and deliver at Regionals-winning quality,' Santana said, taking her place next to Puck as the lead female voice in the number. Finn was already sitting behind the drum kit and Mike and Brittany had taken their places for the choreography they had worked out for the number. 'So, without further adieu,' she added, nodding to Finn, 'HIT IT!'

Immediately, Finn counted out the beat on his drumsticks, and Puck began to play the world famous guitar riff intro to the song, as Finn began to hammer out the beat on the drum kit and cowbell.

'_All our times have come / Here but now they're gone / seasons don't fear the reaper / nor do the wind or the sun or the rain_' Puck and Santana began to sing, their voices harmonising beautifully.

'_...don't fear the reaper..._' they sang as they finished the last verse, five minutes and ten seconds later, after delivering some powerhouse vocals, with some amazing, high-energy choreography from Mike and Brittany and a killer solo on the guitar from one Noah Puckerman, the five glee rockers stood in the performance area, breathing heavily and sweating slightly, shaking from nerves, adrenaline and the dopamine release from such a killer performance. For half a nerve-wracking heartbeat, the choir room was silent as everyone took the performance in, but then it erupted in applause and their performance received a standing ovation from everyone (except Artie).

'Wow, just wow,' Mr Shue said, still clapping encouragingly after the applause died down enough so he could be heard. 'Oh my god, guys, that was amazing!' he said, enthusiastically. 'What brought this on?' he asked, genuinely.

'Well, like we said,' Santana said. 'We were sick of singing the Rachel Berry and friends repertoire, and wanted to show everyone that there were other options out there, and we wanted to show you guys what we can do,' she said, smiling broadly.

'Well, I am impressed!' Shue said emphatically. 'Come on guys, give them another round of applause,' he said, and another round of applause filled the room, though this one was shorter and quieter, and Santana hugged Brittany and Mike and high-fived Puck and Finn on a job well done before they began to return to their seats. Just as they were about to return to their seats to let Mr Shue begin the days lesson, Rachel Berry decided to open her mouth,

'I don't see what the big deal is, they performed some crass 70s rock song and...'

'Are you crazy, Rachel, that was amazing!' Kurt said, cutting off his best friend's rant before she was able to work herself up too much.

'Yeah, Rachel, are you blind and deaf? That was so good!' said Mercedes. 'And that's coming from a sister – I don't normally do the whole 70s rock thing, but damn that was amazing. And that choreography was on fire,' she said appreciatively, and Mike nodded his head in thanks and Brittany blushed cutely under the praise.

'Be that as it may,' she said, 'Its still just some crass 70s rock song – its all flash and noise and no soul...' she began, working herself up into a frenzy once more.

'You wouldn't know soul if it came up and bit you in the ass,' Mercedes said, just loud enough to be heard by everyone in the room. Rachel ignored the comment and continued, unfazed.

'– and frankly, Barbara would never be caught dead singing such a number, and besides, its about suicide, anyway, and frankly, suicide is a very important and sensitive issue and as glee club co-captain I don't think we should make light of such a tragic plight on our society and...'

'Oh, can it Hobbit,' Santana said, having heard more than enough, and hating that Rachel Berry just couldn't handle the fact that someone else was in the spotlight for once. 'You're just angry because you know that we've done something better than you'd ever be able to do'

'I am not! I have a perfect vocal range and can handle any piece just as well as you, Santana'

'No, you can't'

'Don't be silly, of course I can'

'No, you can't. And don't just ask me, we were all there for your little song at the party at your house a few weeks ago – you murdered that song, Man Hands. Just stick to your pretend emotions and Barbara Streisand – who, by the way, is over-rated and the fact that your precious Barbara would never do "Don't Fear the Reaper" for me is nothing but a compliment, because there's far more to life than your over-rated showtunes, Dwarf,' Santana said, angrily, beginning to feel herself getting worked up as well over Rachel's comments. It was not fair for Rachel to just sit there and shit on their performance; they worked really hard on it. Not just her, but Puck and Finn too. They practised ages to get the music down perfectly. And Boy Chang and Brittany had spent hours upon hours working on and practising that choreography until it was perfect and flawless, and here she was taking a massive shit on it just because she couldn't be the star. Or because it wasn't something that had been done by her precious Barbara. Or both. She didn't particularly care, all she knew is that if the Hobbit knew what was good for her, she'd shut her damn mouth.

Sensing Santana's rising anger, Brittany made her way to her side and rubbed gentle, calming circles on her back and arms, calming her and bringing her back from the brink of physical violence. As soon as Santana's hands unclenched from the fists that the other girl wasn't even aware that she had made, Brittany subtly assisted Santana in taking deep, calming breaths, and when she was satisfied that she was as calm as she was going to get in this situation, she linked her pinky with her girlfriend's and they walked back to their seats in the back row of the choir room, where Santana sat down with a huff.

'Actually, you guys, Santana and the others make a very good point,' Mr Shue said, pointedly ignoring the wounded look on Rachel Berry's normally smug face. He crossed to the board in the centre of the room as he spoke, continuing,

'And that is that we all tend to be a bit set in our ways, in many different ways, but especially artistically and musically,' he said, writing two words for the lesson of the week on the board. The words read: COMFORT ZONE.

'We all have our established musical repertoires. What we're comfortable with, what we like, what we enjoy doing,' he paused, taking a breath before continuing, 'what we're good at. But we'll never grow, either individually or as a team, musically, artistically or otherwise, unless we stretch ourselves beyond our established repertoires and purposely force ourselves to leave our comfort zones. So, that's what this week's assignment is. Because its a Friday, I'll give you until Tuesday to prepare, but after that we'll start working through the assignment for the week as normal. And your assignment is to force yourself out of your comfort zone. Do something you are unsure about, that you are uncomfortable with. If you're normally a dancer, I want you to just sing. If you normally do the standard showtunes and pop songs show choir repertoire, show me something with passion and emotion. If you normally fly solo, sing as a duet with someone...you guys get the idea,' he concluded to a variety of hushed mumbling from the glee clubbers, in varying states of excitement. The rest of the glee club rehearsal continued as they normally do, without further excitement or incident.

Around seven o'clock that evening, Santana pulled into the Pierce's drive to pick up Brittany for their first official, proper date as girlfriends. She was done up simply, wearing a knee-length red-dress that showed off her curves spectacularly which she knew Brittany went wild about, over which she wore her leather jacket. Her make up was simple and she wore her hair down and natural, the way that she knew Brittany preferred it. She didn't want anything to spoil this night; it was special, they were both very excited, it was going to be perfect and nothing was going to ruin it.

As she approached the door she was overcome with a strange sense of nervousness. Swallowing it down as silly, she rang the doorbell. No sooner had the familiar chime rang through the house than the door opened and was greeted by Brittany's mother, Allison.

'Oh, hello Santana,' she said warmly. 'Come on in. Are you picking up Brittany?'

'Thanks, yeah,' Santana said, walking in to the familiar front room of the familiar house.

'And don't you look nice dear,' Mrs Pierce commented idly as Santana took off her shoes. After years of being in the Pierces' home, she knew that shoes were not worn in the house and now instinctively took them off, even if she wasn't planning on entering the actual house proper. 'I like how you're wearing your hair, dear,' she added, 'You should wear it like that more often.'

'Thanks,' Santana said, seriously hoping she wasn't noticeably blushing. 'Brittany really likes it this way too'

Mrs Pierce just smirked slightly and nodded knowingly. She knew all about wanting to look nice for your special someone. Instead, she just left the front room momentarily and yelled up the stairs to her daughter who was probably primping and looking herself over – for the millionth time – in the mirror.

'Brittany! Santana's here! You better hurry your butt up and get down here, you don't want to keep her waiting!'

Soon, she returned to where Santana stood, fidgeting idly, not really knowing how she was supposed to behave in this new situation. Allison took pity on her, and grabbed her by the hand and brought her through to the kitchen where she had been enjoying a cup of tea.

'Well, come on then, dear,' she said, bringing Santana through, 'You don't need to be so awkward and nervous and walk along on eggshells around us now that you and Brittany are out to us and official. We still love and care for you both, and we're not going to treat you like some defiler of our daughter's virtue now just because you've told us that the two of you are in love,' she said, giggling as she sat Santana down across the kitchen table from where she had been sitting and made her a cup of tea while they waited for Brittany. Santana, too, started to chuckle at this, as the concept was rather ridiculous when she thought about it out loud. Plus, Mrs P had _giggled. _Like a schoolgirl. Almost like Brittany giggled – almost. Santana had never heard Mrs P giggle before, and it was so much for her that they both started laughing and giggling for quite a few minutes before they calmed down and Mrs P had pressed a steaming cup of tea, made exactly as she took it – a splash of milk, two sugars – as she had known for many years already due to Santana spending so much time in her home, with her family and her daughter.

'So, any special plans for this hot date?' Allison asked Santana, now that the girl had clearly calmed her nerves, and since her daughter was clearly taking her dear sweet time getting ready.

'Britt said she wanted to go see a movie,' Santana said.

'Oh, did she say which one?'

'No, but you know how Britt is,' Santana said by way of an explanation. 'I figured we'd go to that new megaplex out near Dalton, there's gotta be something playing there that she'll like' she said calmly. 'Besides, I like to think I've gotten pretty good at figuring out her tastes in movies and tv and stuff'

'Isn't that one a bit far?' Allison asked, 'I mean its a bit of a drive out there right?'

'Its only like a 20 minute drive,' Santana said. 'If we went to the movie theatre in the mall it would take us almost that long to find a parking space. Besides, its only got like 6 screens – the one out it Dalton has like 50! Can you imagine how many movies are showing in a theatre that size? Its amazing!' Santana said, almost breathlessly.

Mrs Pierce knew she should probably cut Santana off before she got going. Years of getting to know the young Latina girl had taught her that, despite her tough outer exterior that she liked to show to the world, Santana Lopez was a sensitive, sometimes brooding, artistic girl, who was a bit of a dork, even though she tried (rather successfully) at hiding it from most people. But Mrs Pierce knew one thing that made Santana Lopez fly her geek flag quicker than anything was movies. She was a huge movie buff, and could talk about them for hours; she was pretty much entirely responsible for expanding Brittany's cinematic horizons beyond Disney films (Even though both girls' favourite films were still Disney classics – Aladdin for Brittany and Lady and the Tramp for Santana), and had even expanded the already somewhat sophisticated cinematic tastes of the elder Pierces as well. She knew she should nip this long-winded explanation of just why the megaplex in Dalton was better than the rinky-dink theatre in the Lima mall in the bud, but seeing and hearing Santana talk so openly and unselfconsciously about something was so nice, and so refreshing, she didn't have the heart to do it. To her own astonishment, however, she didn't need to because after only a few long minutes she ended the conversation by simply

'and besides, they just built a new Breadstix out there that we should try out,' Santana said simply, finishing the conversation and her tea.

'Oh you girls and your Breadstix obsession,' Mrs Pierce said teasingly. 'Enjoy those fast metabolisms while they last, because when you get to be my age, you can't eat all those carbs without regretting it the next day – even if it is the most delicious thing out there,' she said, laughing at Santana's horrified face.

Of course, Brittany chose that minute to enter the kitchen, finally satisfied that she looked acceptable for their date. She was also done up simply but beautifully. A mid-thigh length light blue dress that matched her eyes and was trimmed in black that offset her blonde hair and pale skin wonderfully, her hair and make-up, like Santana's, very subtle and natural looking.

'What are you two talking about in here?' she asked innocently, walking in the room. As Santana turned in her chair to answer her girlfriend's question, her jaw simply dropped, and she was unable to speak for a few moments as all coherent thought left her brain that wasn't directly related to the beauty in front of her.

'Britt...you look...you look...' she started to say, her brain still clearly in a daze.

'Do you like it?' she asked shyly, giving the dress a twirl as she spun lightly on the spot. 'I know its only the movies, but I wanted to look nice for you, San,' she added, in a voice barely above a whisper.

'Brittany, you look...you look absolutely beautiful,' Santana said emphatically, smiling broadly at the girl in front of her. 'And you always look wonderful to me, no matter what you're wearing.'

Brittany smiled shyly at the praise, and then, blushing slightly, lifted her face to look at her mother, asking, 'Well, Mom, what do you think?'

'I agree with Santana, my Sunshine. You look so beautiful,' her mother agreed. 'I think Santana definitely won't be complaining about the wait for you to get ready when you look like that,' she said, winking at her daughter as Santana dumbly shook her head in agreement.

Giggling at the praise, and making her way to where Santana was once sitting and currently standing,

'Well, I don't think Santana looks half bad either,' she said, looking her girlfriend up and down, unconsciously liking her lips slightly.

She grabbed her girlfriend's hand, and with the trained skill of a dancer, manoeuvred her girlfriend into a spin, as she took in the Latina's appearance gratefully as well.

'You look very pretty tonight, too, San,' she said once the spin was completed.

'Well then, I think we have a movie to catch,' Santana said, smiling broadly and regaining her composure, and the girls walked through to the front room, put on their shoes, and walked to Santana's car parked in the drive, Mrs Pierce waving behind them. She called out to them just as they were approaching Santana's car, and just before she closed the door behind the girls,

'Santana!'

Santana looked back, her attention drawn back once more to Allison Pierce.

'Not too late, please'

'Don't worry, Mrs P,' Santana assured her, laughter in her voice.

When they got to Santana's car, before Brittany could open the passenger side door, Santana hurried over to the offending door and opened the door for her girlfriend.

'Aww, San, you're so sweet,' she said, kissing Santana lightly on the nose before getting in and letting Santana close the door behind her. Once Santana came around to her side of the car and got in, Brittany asked,

'So, where to?'

'Well, you said you wanted to go to the movies and not watch it,' Santana said, coyly. 'So I figured we'd go out to the new Megaplex near Dalton, sneak in some candy, and find a good movie to not watch,' she continued, hoping that Brittany wouldn't be too disappointed that they were going on a public date a few towns over because she was still too much of a coward to take her on a date in their own town.

Brittany smiled at Santana's response.

'I know how crazy you are about your movies, San, you've been talking my ear off about that new Megaplex for weeks,' she said, laughing, as Santana manoeuvred the car onto the main road. 'Besides, I hear they just opened a new Breadstix location there, as well. Could be worth checking out.'

'I like the way you think Ms. Pierce,' Santana said, laughing, reaching for the radio. Before she was able to switch it on, however, Brittany grabbed her hand, and said to Santana in a serious voice,

'I'm glad we're able to do this, finally, Santana. Even if we can't do it in Lima yet,' she said, smiling, which she knew Santana saw out of her peripheral vision. 'I know we'll get there, eventually, but in the meantime, I'm just glad that we can go somewhere and just be ourselves'

She then switched on the radio herself, the serious moment thus over, and began flipping through the stations until she found one playing music they both liked, and they sang in the car all the way to the Dalton Megaplex for their first ever official date as girlfriends.

As they pulled into the parking lot, they were discussing what movie they were going to see.

'So, what movie – sorry, I mean _film_ –,' Brittay said, teasing her girlfriend about her secret geekdom, before continuing, 'what movie are we going to see, San?'

Santana met her girlfriend's teasing by sticking out her tongue.

'Honestly? I don't know. I haven't heard much about much of what is out right now and I was kind of thinking maybe you should chose, since the last time I chose a film you fell asleep ten minutes in,' Santana said.

'San, it had _closed captioning_,' Brittany countered, as if that in and of itself was defence of her failure to stay awake. 'Its like the person who works at the movie theatre thought I was deaf or something.'

'They're subtitles, Britt,' Santana said.

'Same thing,' Brittany said. 'I had to read what they were saying. And you know I only like to read Dr Seuss, Teen Cosmo, Nancy Drew and your Latin People – but the last one I only look at the pictures because the Spanish is much harder than what Mr Shue teaches us,' she said matter of factly.

'It was a foreign film, Brittany! It was made in Israel, they were speaking Hebrew,' Santana laughed, in pretend-frustration. 'Unless you all of a sudden started speaking Hebrew and didn't tell me, there'd have to be subtitles for us to understand it. _Waltz with Bashir_ is one of the best foreign films I've ever seen,' she said shaking her head in pseudo-frustration. 'See, this is why you should help me pick what we see today,' Santana offered kindly.

Brittany smiled broadly at the way she had 'won' the 'argument' they had been having.

'So what are you in the mood to not watch, Britt? Romance? Animation? What do you want to see?'

'Is the one with the animated cowboy lizard playing yet, I wanted to see that one when we saw it in the trailers before Christmas break,' she said.

'Rango? Yeah, its playing here, I think. And I've heard good things about it as well...so, yeah let's go see Rango,' she said, undoing her lap belt. 'But before we do,' she said, pausing and reaching into the back seat for something, grabbing a small bag and bringing it into the front seat with her before continuing, 'we can't forget the necessities of good movie theatre viewing,' she said, pulling some items from the bag.

'You have my dots?'

'Two boxes of dots for Brittany, and two boxes of Cheerios-contraband Raisinettes for me,' she said, pulling the candy out of the bag, along with two bottles of water which they put in their handbags to sneak into the theatre with them, because you'd have to be out of your mind to pay theatre prices for those things.

Once they were ready to go, Brittany started to open the passenger-side door so she could get out and they would head to the box office to buy their tickets, but a hand on her arm made her stop and wait. Santana was still digging through the bag for something. Soon she pulled out a single red rose, stuck in a self-contained hydroponic pod of water and wrapped loosely in protective plastic.

'I got you this,' she said shyly. 'Its in its own little hydroponic thing, so you don't need to worry about feeding it or putting it in water at least until we get back to your house. I know its kind of silly, but its our first official date and everything, and I thought you might like it and, well, I just thought I'd get it for you and if you don't like it you don't have to keep it and...' she said, starting to ramble, clearly more nervous than she had let on or had let even herself believe she was.

She was cut off quickly by a soft, brief kiss from Brittany.

'You are such a goober,' Brittany told Santana. 'I love it. You absolutely didn't have to get it for me, we're definitely beyond the whole flowers-on-a-first-date-thing,' she said, smirking at the truth of their situation, 'but that doesn't mean I don't love it all the same,' she said before she quickly pecked another kiss on her girlfriends lips. 'But you really are such a goober'

'I know,' Santana said, returning Brittany's peck of a kiss with one of her own. 'But don't tell anybody.'

'Don't worry, San,' Brittany said, smiling and blushing slighly. 'I won't tell anyone you're a soft, squishy, romantic goober...who's all mine,' she said, giving her girlfriend one last peck on the lips before adding, 'They'll find it out for themselves eventually. But until then...last one to the box office smells like Sue!' she said, dashing out of the door of Santana's car, handbag in one hand and the rose Santana had given her in the other, making a mad dash towards the ticket office of the theatre.

Santana, for her part, recovered quickly, and it took her only a few heartbeats to realise that she and her girlfriend were now officially in a footrace to the theatre. She immediately threw off her lap belt, grabbed her own handbag and ran out of her own car, barely pausing to make sure she locked it on her way to catch up with, and preferably overtake, her girlfriend. She almost did, too, if it wasn't for Brittany's head-start and significantly longer legs, which ensured she reached the queue for the box office a full fifteen seconds before Santana arrived, nearly crashing into her from the momentum.

When they finally got through the queue and up to the ticketing window, they had both caught their breath from their unexpected run, and were happily excited to get their tickets for their movie. Brittany could barely contain her excitement – she bouncing on her heels and toes every time they stood stationary for a few moments, and linked her arm with Santana's so tightly Santana was wondering if she would bruise later on, and at the same time held the rose Santana had given her in the palm of her hand on that arm, whilst using her other hand hold Santana's hand. It was as if she physically couldn't be close enough to Santana in that moment and despite the minor pain and uncomfort, Santana didn't dare say anything as she looked so happy, and so cute like that, her smile stretching literally from ear to ear as they approached the older lady who was selling the tickets.

'Hi,' Santana said, approaching the ticket seller at the window.

'Well, hello ladies, don't you two look lovely tonight,' the upper middle-aged ticket lady said kindly, after looking them over briefly.

'Uh...thanks,' Santana said slightly unnerved as she had never met a middle aged Megaplex worker so happy and chatty before, and it was weird. She continued, 'Uh, could we have two tickets to Rango, please?'

'You sure can,' the lady said, pressing a few buttons. 'Let's see two student fares for Rango...that will be $12 please,' she said kindly.

'Babe,' Santana said to Brittany, laughing, 'I need you to let go so I can pay the lady.'

'Oh, sure, of course,' Brittany said, untangling her arms from Santana's momentarily so her girlfriend could pay the lady. As Santana handed over the money, the ticket seller handed over two tickets, and Brittany's arms found themselves once again in the position they were in previously.

'Enjoy your date,' the kindly middle aged lady said as they left to enter the theatre.

'We will, thanks!' Brittany said enthusiastically, waving at the nice lady and smiling brightly, and even Santana was chuckling slightly.

Santana was shocked and surprised – happily so, of course, but shocked and surprised none the less – at how little problems they ran into at the theatre. She was half expecting some terrible thing to happen that would require her to go 'All Lima Heights' and defend herself and Brittany's right to be there, together, as a couple. She was half expecting to be refused entry to the theatre, or to have crazy religious people heckle them and tell them what they were doing was an abomination or any number of a myriad of equally unpleasant situations that she had been secretly dreading in her head to occur. But they didn't. She asked for two tickets, handed the lady the money, and received their tickets and wishes for a pleasant date from a kindly older lady. _Perhaps_, she thought to herself, _just maybe this might be easier than I thought_. But then again, she knew with Brittany by her side, she felt like she could do anything, no matter the task. When she and Brittany were together, and didn't have to worry about hiding or keeping up appearances at school or around Lima more generally, she felt like she was Superwoman.

The rest of the date went perfectly, and without incident. Rango became one of her new favourite movies, though she could hardly tell anyone who asked her what it was about to save her life.


	5. La vie en rose

The following Monday, before they had to start presenting their assignments in glee club, Santana and Brittany were spending their lunch period alone together, away from the prying eyes of the rest of the school, in the bleachers around the football field. They spent most of the period alternating between companionable silence, eating their lunches, and talking about any random topic that came to mind, whilst Brittany absent-mindedly drew pink and purple hearts on Santana's otherwise pristine white trainers in marker pen.

'Hey San?'

'Yeah, Britt?'

'What song are you going to do for Mr Shue's assignment?'

'I dunno, I have a couple songs that I'm thinking about but haven't decided, either way I'm still going to be better than Berry. What about you?'

'San, its not about being better than Rachel, its about stretching ourselves musically,' Brittany said.

'I'm glad you added that _musically_ on the end there, Babe,' Santana said, waggling her eyebrows cheekily, 'because I know from what we got up to the other night that we don't need any practice stretching or being flexible in the other ways,' she added, sticking out her tongue playfully.

'Santana!' Brittany said, in a voice that said she was pretending to be scandalised. In reality, she loved when the two of them were alone like this and they could just be themselves, and Santana could be as affectionate as she felt like, without having to pretend or worry about being seen or overheard. It broke her heart thinking about the fact that they couldn't yet be like that all the time. But she knew that eventually they would get there. Still pretending to be scandalised, she playfull slapped Santana on the arm, before continuing, 'As much as I love thinking about that too, I was trying to be serious. There are so many options. I know so many people think of me as just a dancer and a king of poppy kind of girl, I was hoping to do something to show them that I'm more than that,' she said.

'I'm glad, Babe,' Santana said. 'You've got so much more to offer than they ever give you credit for. I'm positive whatever you do, you'll blow them away'

'I hope so. I don't want to disappoint Mr Shue. I mean, yeah, sometimes he's a bit clueless, but everybody is sometimes, and I mean, he tries really hard, and I like that he always accepts everyone, no matter what, no questions asked'

'Yeah, I guess he is a pretty decent guy, underneath that butt-chin of his and despite the fact that he coddles Berry because he can't deal with her tantrums,' Santana agreed.

'I'm sure you won't disappoint him, Baby, and if anyone says anything mean, you know that I'll always be on your side'

'I know,' Brittany said lovingly. They took advantage of the short amount of privacy they had at school and kissed for a few long minutes whilst they were away from prying eyes. When they broke apart, they were both smiling like idiots.

'So what song are you going to do, Britt?' Santana asked. 'Do you want to do something more...gritty? Make the rest of the kids think twice before putting you into a certain box?'

'Well, I do want them to stop thinking of me as just an amazing dancer and a girl who does modern and 80s pop really well'

'So what are you going to do? Are you going to let your freak flag fly and let everyone know about your secret love of grunge?' Santana asked, only partially teasing.

'Its a secret,' she said coyly. 'I want it to be a secret, because I'll really be singing for you, even if it is a glee assingment,' she added quietly. They kissed again, softly, with both Santana and Brittany smiling into the kiss.

'What are you going to sing, San?'

'Well, I don't think any of them expect me to do blues or country, so I figure I'd kill two birds with one stone –,' she paused as she saw Brittany's eyes widen in horror, quickly adding 'No, Baby, we've been over this, its an expression, I'm not actually going to kill any birds, and especially no ducks,' she added quickly, before continuing with her thought once she saw that Brittany had calmed down, 'like I was saying, I think I'll take care of both at the same time by doing some Janis Joplin'

'Oh, I love when you sing Janis Joplin, San, your voice gets so raspy just like hers,' Brittany practically swooned, which in turn made Santana's heart do backflips and somersaults and all sorts of other aerobatics besides. She smiled shyly.

'Thanks, Baby,' she said. 'I hope I don't fuck it up too badly'

'You'll do great, I know it,' Brittany said.

'You're just saying that'

'No, I'm not, Santana. I would never just tell you what you want to hear if it weren't true. I will never lie to you, even if the lie is something positive. I love you too much for that, and I hope that you would never lie to me, either'

'Never'

'Pinky promise?' Brittany asked, holding out her pinky for Santana.

'Pinky promise,' Santana replied, grasping Brittany's proffered pinky with her own, and smiling.

'So, do you want to come over later?' Brittany asked Santana. 'I finally got a new lead and harness for Lord Tubbington, and this time I think its one that he'll like, and we can take him for a walk around the neighbourhood'

Santana couldn't hold back her laughter, and let out a hearty bark of pure, blissful laughter. It was little things like this that made Brittany so amazing.

'Britt, if you think His Lordship is going to allow his fat, lazy butt to be stuffed into a harness and forced to go walk around, outside, and actually get some exercise, then I have a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn!'

'You do? You never told me that, Santana!'

'No, Britt, I don't. Its an expression. It means that LT is NOT going to let himself be put in that harness and go for a walk,' she said, her eyes still laughing.

'But the Vet said he needed to get exercise, and I don't like him hanging around those stray tomcats that hang around at night...I think they're in a gang and trying to get him to join,' she said.

'I actually have to go to my Abuela's tonight, anyway, Britt,' she said. 'But I'll pick you up from your house for school tomorrow morning and you can tell me all about trying to get His Lordship to go for a walk then,' she said, giving Brittany a brief kiss as she packed up what remained up their lunches and collected their trash for the bins, as the bell rang to mark the end of the period, and they headed back into school, away from their brief island of privacy and normalcy, back into the ocean of chaos that was William McKinley High School for their next period of class.

The next day went off more or less without incident, except for Artie and Tina getting slushied. Santana felt bad for Tina and would have felt much worse for Artie if he hadn't been the one that had kept her and Brittany apart most recently, and, she suspected, still harboured feelings for her girlfriend, which she was not pleased about.

At the end of the day in the choir room, Santana and Brittany sat talking quietly in their usual seats as they waited for Mr Shue. It was like it was impossible for him to show up to glee club on time, ever. Sue, for all her many faults, was at least punctual to practice. Brittany was just telling Santana how Lord Tubbington actually liked his harness, but for some reason refused to wear it unless Santana was also there to help him into it; _in other words, he put up a fight and she wants me to shove the fat lard into the harness, _Santana thought ruefully, as Mr Shue walked, with far too much energy than was good for him, into the room, walking directly to the centre of the room and re-writing the assignment from last Friday, for which they were to begin their performances, on the board: COMFORT ZONE.

'Okay, guys, listen up,' he began, clapping his hands once and rubbing them together to get everyone's attention. 'Today we're going to start presenting our assignments from last week. Is anyone ready to kick us off?'

Of course, always eager to be the teachers' pet and the centre of attention, Rachel's hand shot straight up before anyone else had a chance.

'Okay, Rachel, go ahead and start us off,' Mr Shue said, beckoning her to the performance area in the front of the room. 'Show us what you've got, Rach,' he said.

She had prepared a rendition of the famous song from the hit Broadway musical _Fiddler on the Roof_, "If I were a Rich Man". She had, of course, re-arranged the score to better fit her vocal range, and she had changed all the masculine pronouns to feminine ones. And to say her performance was anything other than show stopping would be a lie. But, the fact of the matter was, it was still a show tune from Broadway. It was like she was trying to flaunt the fact that she would ignore what the actual assignment was in order to do whatever the hell she wanted. Santana smirked and whispered to Brittany,

'I told you Berry wouldn't be able to hold a candle to either of us'

Brittany nodded in agreement before adding,

'And probably most of the other kids in the club too. Her voice is good but its like she doesn't even try to do whats best for the group, only for her,' to which Santana heartily agreed. Raising her voice so everyone could hear and directing her comment to both Rachel and Mr Shue, Santana said,

'How exactly does this follow the assignment, Dwarf? Mr Shue, this isn't stretching her comfort zone at all'

'What are you talking about, of course it does, Santana'

'Oh, shut up, Hobbit,' Santana said, determined to cut Rachel Berry down to size and to force Mr Shue to actually do his job for once where she was concerned, 'the assignment was to perform something out of your normal repertoire and stretch your musical comfort zone. You are still doing show tunes, just one that's not sung by you're Sainted Barbara!'

'Its a boys' song, Santana!'

'So fucking what?' Santana countered, barely noticing Mr Shuester's admonishment over her language. 'Lady Hummel sings songs traditionally sung by women all the time, that doesn't make it out of his repertoire, nor would it be out of his repertoire if he sung a song sung by men for once, either! My God, Man Hands, its like you're trying to flaunt how little you care about the group and only care about doing whatever the hell you want.!' Santana said, clearly having worked herself into an understandable angry rant. Mr Shue realised he needed to act quickly to defuse the situation, and that if he were to maintain the respect of his club as a whole, he needed to be tough on Rachel for once.

'Santana is right, Rachel,' Mr Shue said. 'What you performed, while vocally amazing and beautifully arranged, is not what I asked you to prepare at all. You are a very valuable member of this group, but you are far from the only star here, and the other 11 members of this glee club are not here to be your back up singers and dancers. I'm actually very disappointed in how little respect you seem to be showing any of us, myself included,' he said, firmly, cutting off any arguments from her with a very firm look that no one in the glee club had seen very often, if at all.

'Mr Shue, maybe you should demonstrate to us – and Rachel especially – what you are really looking for?' Tina asked, in an attempt to be helpful, with most of the group, sans Rachel, nodding in agreement.

'Yeah, Mr Shue, show us what you got,' Santana said, smirking happily. It wasn't because she didn't believe he would deliver something good – on the contrary, she knew he would; despite his horrendous Spanish abilities, and the fact he was always late to glee club, he was a very good teacher and coach for glee whom she respected a lot for his talents, and she was excited to see what he had prepared for an example – she was smirking because she wanted to see the look on Rachel's stupid face.

'Well, I was going to go last, but alright, given this little incident, I think it might be a good idea if I showed you what I was looking for,' he said, chuckling. He stood up from his usual chair that he sat in when watching performances, grabbed a guitar and sat on a stool in the performance area in the centre of the room.

'As I'm sure you're all aware by now, my forte is on big performance numbers with lots of dancing and harmonies and that sort of thing – what stretches me out of my comfort zone is just me, alone, playing guitar and singing. I think its a beautiful way to perform, don't get me wrong, I've just never been completely comfortable with my ability to do it well. So, that's why that is what I will be doing today,' he said, looking pointedly at Rachel Berry as he said that. He then began to pluck the strings in a beautifully intricate pattern, playing a very rich, full, acoustic version of the song he chose to perform, which happened to be one of his favourites. The song was very familiar to some, but wholly unfamiliar to others in the choir room. He then began to sing.

'_When I die and they lay me to rest_

_I'm gonna to the place that's the best_

_When I lay me down to die_

_I'm gonna to the spirit in the sky..._'

Four minutes later, he had finished his solo acoustic cover of Norman Greenbaum's _Spirit in the Sky_ to heaps of applause and cheers and whistles from the entire glee club, even, begrudgingly, from Rachel.

Quinn and Mercedes loved it, of course, being a song ostensibly about Jesus, and were not afraid to show their appreciation through comments and applause. Puck seemed to enjoy it a lot as well, and once the applause and comments had died down, he said to no one in particular but the room at large,

'You know that was written by a Jew?'

His comment received chuckles of uneasy laughter and many people rolled their eyes or shook their heads ruefully.

'Alright then, guys, now that you see sort of the idea I'm looking for, we have time for two more performances today. Who wants to go?' Mr Shue asked to the room. Santana and Brittany's hands both shot up instantaneously.

'Okay, Brittany and Santana, you're up,' Mr Shue said, thinking they were doing a duet, 'anyone else?'

'No, Mr Shue,' Brittany said. 'We're not doing a duet, we both prepared songs individually'

'Oh, well, okay then,' Mr Shue said, trying to hide his surprise. Not at Santana preparing something on her own, but the fact that she left Brittany to sing on her own was something he was not prepared for. Not that Brittany was a bad singer, but she was more known for her skills as a dancer, than a singer, in the glee club. He recovered quickly, however, 'alright, sure, who wants to go first?'

'If its okay, I'd like to go last,' Brittany said slightly shyly. Santana offered her a quick, indulgent smile, and volunteered to go first.

'I guess that makes me next,' she said, stepping down to the performance area. Following Mr Shue's lead, she gave a small speech about her reasoning behind the song she had chosen.

'I know that a lot of you think I'm a pretty decent singer,' she said without preamble, 'which I appreciate. But very few of you have really been able to hear me sing things other than what we've been doing that are in Berry's repertoire, really. So I thought I'd do something to stretch my range a bit, and do a genre that most people wouldn't expect a Latina girl like me to be able to do well,' she said, before turning to Brad the piano player, who started playing the simple piano accompaniment, followed shortly by the guitar player from the band geeks who always seem to magically wind up accompanying them. Then she began to sing in a full, beautiful, raspy voice.

_'Busted flat in Baton Rouge_

_Waitin' for a train_

_I was feelin' as faded as my jeans_

_Bobby thumbed a diesel down, just before it rained_

_Rode us all the way to New Orleans_'

Once she began, it was as if there was nothing but the music. Her worries about messing up the song all faded away as she focused all her energy into performing the song with emotion, with all the emotion that the song deserved, and everything else seemed to fade away. She was aware of Brittany smiling broadly at her interpretation, and she thought she saw Mr Shue smile broadly as well, but she was too focused on the song to notice or care at that precise moment.

'_I pulled my harpoon_

_Outta my dirty red bandana_

_I was playing soft when Bobby sang the blues (yeah)_

_Windshield wipers slapping time, I was holdin' Bobby's hand in mine_

_We song every song that driver knew...' _

As she went into the fist time singing the chorus, she was vaguely aware of almost everyone smiling and clapping along with the beat, Brittany, she noticed sang along with 'yeah yeahs' where they were appropriate, and everyone except for Rachel seemed to be enjoying the performance.

'_Freedom is just another word, for nothing left to lose_

_Nothing don't mean nothin' honey, if it ain't free, now now_

_And feelin' good was easy, Lo-ord, when he sang the blues_

_You know feelin' good was good enough for me_

_Good enough for me and my Bobby McGee..._'

She had absolutely nailed the performance. By the time she had finished the first chorus, nearly everyone in the glee club was clapping along in time, some of them sang along to the chorus, and she no longer worried about her performance, letting the emotion of the song carry her through, the beauty and the pain and everything rolled into one beautiful song, which she sang her heart out to.

When she had finished with her performance five minutes later, it was to massive applause and cheering from everyone in glee club, even Man Hands Berry. Brittany, of course, could barely contain herself and was bouncing up and down in her seat, cheering and applauding louder than anyone else. Santana let the emotions of the song, and those she was feeling of the response she was getting to her performance, sweep over her, and she smiled broadly, and genuinely – one she rarely used within the walls of McKinley High School, and was mostly reserved for Brittany, except in rare occasions, such as performances like this in glee or winning championships with the Cheerios. Before she knew it, Brittany was engulfing her in a huge hug, which was then followed by Quinn, and Finn, Puck and Mike Chang all enthusiastically gave her high fives and other forms of congratulations.

'Wow, just...wow, that was amazing, Santana!' Mr Shue said after the commotion had died down, and tried to give some kind of comment or criticism, but was only really able come out with little more than 'wow, you guys, that was amazing, right?! Give Santana another round of applause! I think we definitely need to consider something like this for Regionals!'

'Santana, how do you get your voice so raspy?' Mercedes asked, when the applause died down for the second time.

'I smoke cigars,' Santana deadpanned, earning nervous chuckles from some of the group.

'Right, well, as tough as that is to follow, Brittany, you're up, let's see what you've prepared for us,' Mr Shue said, beckoning her down to the performance area.

As she met Santana on her way down, she gave her a quick congratulatory hug, and whispered in her ear,

'Remember, I know this is for glee club, but really, its for you. You were amazing. I love you.'

Before Santana could reply, and keeping the hug short so that it would appear – probably – platonic to those who weren't paying too much attention to them, she broke the hug and continued to the centre of the performance area, where both Santana and Mr Shue had started their performances. Like them, she began to give a short speech about why she chose what she did.

'I know that most of you think of me mostly as a dancer,' she began, 'And yeah, I am. I'm an amazing dancer, and I'm not going to deny that. But sometimes, I think you don't give me the credit for being able to do more than that,' she said, frowning slightly at most of the people in the room, except for those, like Santana, Quinn and Mike, who knew that she could sing, as well. 'So I wanted to just sing something for you today, no dancing,' she said. Then without any more adieu, she nodded to Brad who was her only accompaniment, and she closed her eyes slightly, singing in perfect French

'_Des yeux qui font baisser les miens  
Un rire qui se perd sur sa bouche  
Voilà le portrait sans retouche  
De l'homme auquel j'appartiens_

_Quand il me prend dans ses bras  
Il me parle tout bas  
Je vois la vie en rose...'_

Brittany was already almost lost in her own world in her singing, because if she hadn't, she would have seen the look of utter shock on the faces of everyone in glee club, especially Mr Shuester. Looks of shock and surprise on everyone's faces, that is, except one. The only person who mattered, and the only person whom she was still aware of during her singing: Santana. When she saw Santana smiling at her encouragingly, she smiled back, and subconsciously began to sway as she sang,

_'Il me dit des mots d'amour  
Des mots de tous les jours  
Et ça me fait quelque chose_

_Il est entré dans mon coeur  
Une part de bonheur  
Dont je connais la cause_

_C'est lui pour moi, moi pour lui dans la vie  
Il me l'a dit, l'a juré pour la vie...'_

Her voice was thick with emotion, some would even call it husky, not unlike Edith Piaf herself, if they had cared to make a comparison, which in that moment, no one even thought to do. Her hands subconsciously made their way slightly in front of her, around waist height. As if she were holding on to a microphone stand, like many performers do. Or, more realistically, as if she were caressing Santana's hips and pulling her close to her with the very words she was singing. She switched to English and continued singing,

_'Hold me close and hold me fast  
The magic spell you cast  
This is la vie en rose_

_When you kiss me heaven sighs  
And though I close my eyes  
I see la vie en rose...'_

She chanced a look at Santana as she sang, and saw her girlfriend fighting to hold back tears, smiling broadly, her eyes wet and watery with tears – of happiness, she hoped – that she refused to shed. Brittany winked at the Latina girl as she continued singing, her voice thick and sultry,

_'When you press me to your heart  
I'm in a world apart  
A world where roses bloom  
And when you speak, angels sing from above  
Everyday words seem to turn into love songs_

_Give your heart and soul to me  
And life will always be  
La vie en rose_

_I thought that love was just a word  
They sang about in songs I heard  
It took your kisses to reveal  
That I was wrong, and love is real_

_Hold me close and hold me fast  
The magic spell you cast  
This is la vie en rose'_

She finished the last chorus slowly, deliberately. When she finished, it was as if she came back into herself, and the rest of the room, the rest of the glee club – not simply Santana – was sitting there, in stunned, shocked silence. The silence lasted forever, or at least it seemed to, but it probably lasted no more than 10 or 15 seconds before the room erupted with thunderous applause. If Brittany had though Santana's performance received a lot of applause, what she received was exponentially greater. The room erupted in compliments which Brittany did not hear, and Mr Shue waxed poetic about her choice of song and her performance of such a classic, which she barely heard. She answered questions about her performance in French, which she had perfected by listening to recordings on youtube over and over again until she was satisfied, but she barely heard or recognised any of the other responses, though she happily received hand shakes and hugs from everyone in glee club, and Mr Shue's promise to find something in the coming competitions to feature the skills she had obviously been hiding until now, so that she could shine as bright as she just did, but Brittany just nodded, not really hearing him. She was focused on Santana who sat, transfixed, in her seat in the back of the room, her hands tented together over her mouth, clearly attempting to cover the fact that her mouth was quivering as she silently cried – the tears she had fought valiantly to keep from shedding during the performance were now streaming silently down her face, as she stared lovingly at the blonde girl.

Eventually, as all the praise and comments died down, Brittany returned to her seat next to Santana as Mr Shue made some concluding remarks about the next club meeting and preparing for Regionals, which neither of them paid attention to, both of them concentrated as they were on the other, Santana holding Brittany's hand in the gap between their chairs and focusing so hard on trying to send her love to Brittany through that gesture as a thank you for the song, that they didn't even realise that glee club rehearsal was over until they looked around and everyone was gone, and the door was closed.

Santana leaned over immediately and kissed Brittany soundly on the mouth. It was a quick kiss, desperate and longing and passionate, but at the same time full of warmth and tenderness; all too soon, however, they broke apart, because they were, after all, still at school and could be walked in on at any minute.

'That was beautiful, Brittany. Thank you. I love you, too. So, so much,' Santana said, before standing up and collecting all of their things and both of their bags and offering Brittany her pinky. 'Come on, let's get out of here,' she said, leading Brittany out of the choir room, and out of the school into the parking lot.

'San, where are you going?' Brittany asked as she was pulled, almost running, to Santana's car. 'We still have Cherrios practice'

'Baby, if you think I'll be able to focus on anything other than ripping your clothes off and doing sexy, sexy things to you during practice right now, you must be out of your damn mind,' Santana said as they approached the car. 'We're not going to practice today. We're going back to my house, because my parents won't be home until late tomorrow, and I am going to thank you for that song properly,' she said, opening the car door, throwing their bags in the back seat, and jumping in the drivers side, as Brittany got settled in the passenger side. She started the car immediately, and before they knew it they were out of the lot and on the main road, heading towards Santana's house faster than either of them could remember making the trip at any previous time, making it back to her house in what must have been record time.

Kurt and Finn were driving back to their house in Finn's truck. Kurt had his phone attached to the truck's radio via bluetooth and the two step-brothers were engaged in a conversation with Mercedes, Tina, and Quinn via a conference call on speaker phone. They would have had Rachel on as well, but she was still in a very bitter, anti-social mood after being put in her place by Mr Shue earlier.

'So, are we just not going to discuss what just happened?' Mercedes asked.

'They both sang beautifully,' Quinn said, trying change the topic.

'That's not what I meant, Quinn,' Mercedes responded.

'I knew what you meant, Mercedes,' Quinn said, which was met by a slightly awkward pause.

'I'm kind of curious, too,' Tina said. 'I mean first there was that incident at the party, and then what happened today with Brittany in rehearsal...are we really not going to talk about this?'

Kurt noticed Finn's mouth was a thin line of frustration at the turn the conversation had been going, and he echoed his step-brother's frustration my pinching the bridge of his nose with his fingers.

'No, we aren't,' he said simply.

'What, why? They're our friends, shouldn't we...' Tina started

'Well, Brittany is our friend, sometimes I wonder about Satan,' Mercedes added dryly.

'You're not helping, Mercedes,' Quinn said, heading off yet another argument before it began.

'We aren't going to talk about it, because its none of our business,' Kurt said. 'Look, we all know that for whatever reason, they are still trying to keep their relationship a secret, despite it being literally the worst kept secret at McKinley, but be that as it may, its not our place to tell them what they should do or talk behind their backs,' Kurt said. 'Look, coming out is something that no one gets to decide for anyone else, and its highly personal, because once its done, there's no going back,' Kurt said. 'We don't know their reasons, and we shouldn't pretend to think we can. We don't know their situations. Maybe there are issues with acceptance with one, or both, of their families. Maybe they have other issues to contend with as well, and are content to keep their relationship just between them for now. Maybe they are trying to build up the courage – because it really is a really, really, scary thing to do – to tell people, and they want to do it together, just them, and they want to tell their families first. Or maybe they want to tell us individually, and they are trying to find the right time. Maybe, for whatever reason, they want to wait until they leave Lima to tell people, cos I mean, lord knows that Lima isn't the most accepting of places to live. Maybe Santana is trying to protect Brittany from something. Maybe one of them is ready but the other isn't and they're trying work on it together, as a couple. Maybe its none of those things or maybe its something completely different. The point is, guys, we don't know, and its not our place to try to figure it out and force their hand. Whatever they decide, its their decision, and it is completely okay,' he said, pausing for breath. 'Of course, I don't think hiding who you really are is ever a really good idea, and if Santana were to come to me for advice, I would tell her what I think: that I love her, and that I'm proud of her, and that I'm happy she's found someone to make her happy, and that I think she would be happier if she was honest with everyone else as well as herself, and that I would be there for her if she ever needed anything. But, the fact of the matter is, she hasn't come to me for advice, and until she does, its really none of any of our business. So, as their friends, we owe them both enough to respect their privacy and be respectful of their decisions and let them make their own decisions on whom to tell, and when, and until then to not spread rumours around the school or anywhere else,' he added, breathing slightly heavily after giving his impassioned speech on behalf of the two girls.

Finn just nodded at his step-brother's words as they pulled into the drive and Kurt ended the call as they both got out of the truck; Kurt went inside to work on his homework and hopefully get a text from the boy Blaine he had met during his extremely short time at Dalton, and Finn to change his clothes and then head over to the garage to help Burt.

Later that afternoon, Brittany and Santana lay together, cuddling naked, after experiencing some of the best orgasms either had ever had, as Santana's way of properly thanking Brittany for her moving performance. For a while they simply lay there, wrapped in each others arms in comfortable silence, each watching the other as they dozed in and out of contented conciousness. Eventually, Brittany said,

'Wow, Santana, that was...'

'Yeah. And you were...'

'I know,' Brittany said, smiling broadly.

'Seriously, though, Britt,' Santana said, 'that was amazing. The song I mean. Well, the sex was pretty great too, if I do say so myself,' she added waggling her eyebrows cheekily. Brittany giggled.

'Yeah, it was,' she replied playfully, threading her fingers with Santana's.

'But seriously, that song was amazing,' Santana gushed. 'Like, I don't know what got into you, but it was amazing'

'I dunno, San,' Brittany said. 'I can't really explain it. Its just like, when we're together, you make me feel all happy, like the song said, and I wanted to let you know. And also the fact that I could shove it in Rachel's face didn't hurt, either,' she added as an afterthought, to Santana's chuckles of agreement.

Santana leaned over to give her girlfriend a quick kiss before respnding.

'Well, thank you, Brittany, it was beautiful. And not just from the fact that you were singing to me, but your voice and the way you sang that song was so amazing. You really should sing more,' she said. 'And I don't mean like just to me. But for everyone. In glee club. You kicked that song's ass so hard the cover versions have bruises,' she said, and they both laughed heartily at her analogy. 'I really hope Mr Shue starts taking you more seriously now – you better get some kind of solo, or at the very least a feature, at Regionals'

'That would be really nice, if it happened, Santana,' Brittany said, 'but you know that I stay in glee club just because I like it. Yeah, I like the competitions and stuff and want to win, but I do it because I like singing and dancing, and I have fun with my friends. If it turns out that I don't solo this year, promise me you won't make a big deal, please?'

'I promise that I'll try,' Santana said genuinely, looking into her girlfriend's deep blue eyes, hoping that she will see the intensity and earnesty of her promise.

'That's all that I can ask,' Brittany replied, smiling.

They lay together like that, in more or less companionable silence for a little while longer, when Santana spoke again.

'Hey, Britt, why don't we put some clothes on and go down to the park? We could go on the swings and see if we can beat our current world-championship swing-jump title,' she said, smiling, and she got out of bed to search for her clothes that were strewn about the room haphazardly, not waiting for a response, already knowing what it would be.

'You always know just what to say, Santana,' Brittany said, getting out of bed herself and following her girlfriend's lead.

They spent of the rest of the afternoon at the park until it got too dark to see, at which point they returned to Santana's house, where they watched Sweet Valley High DVDs until Santana had to bring Brittany home, just before midnight. 


End file.
